Ostapenko and Arevalo advance to second round in Wimbledon mixed doubles

Latvia's Aļona Ostapenko, partnering with Salvadoran Marcelo Arévalo, secured a victory in the first round of the Wimbledon mixed doubles championship on Saturday. The second-seeded duo defeated Vera Zvonareva of Russia and Albano Olivetti of France with a score of 6-2, 6-7 (4:7), 7-6 (10:7).

Ostapenko and Arévalo started strong, breaking their opponents' serve in the fourth and eighth games of the first set. The second set saw both pairs hold serve until a tiebreak, which Zvonareva and Olivetti won 7-4. In the deciding set, the Russian-French pair led 4-1, but Ostapenko and Arévalo fought back to level at 4-4. The Latvian-Salvadoran pair dominated the final tiebreak, winning 10-7 to claim victory and a spot in the second round.

In the next round, Ostapenko and Arévalo will face Darija Jurak Schreiber of Croatia and Andrés Molteni of Argentina. This pair advanced after a 3-6, 7-6 (7:3), 6-4 win over Guo Hanyu of China and Lucas Miedler of Austria.

Ostapenko's best previous performance in Grand Slam mixed doubles was reaching the Wimbledon final in 2019 with Sweden's Robert Lindstedt.

On Friday, Ostapenko lost in the third round of singles to world number one Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, 4-6, 4-6, earning 130 WTA singles ranking points. Her mixed doubles win earned an additional 130 doubles ranking points. In the women's doubles tournament, Ostapenko and American Sofia Kenin lost in the second round on Saturday.

Wimbledon is the third Grand Slam of the season, played on grass courts.