Maria defeated Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 7-6 6-7 6-0 in a match time of 2 hours and 25 minutes to advance to the third round at Wimbledon.

Play resumed at 3-1 in the second set after the match was suspended due to bad light on Wednesday.  Pironkova started strongly by breaking Maria's serve to level the set 3-3.  Neither player gave anything away on their serve in the remaining games as the set is decided by a tie-break. Pironkova races into a 6-1 lead, Maria wins the next two points but Pironkova wins the next point to take the second set.

After two tie-breaks deciding the first two sets, things changed in the third set as Maria took complete control of the set as she won it 6-0 in 29 minutes.

Maria will play world number 63 Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei in the third round on Friday. Maria has never played the 26-year-old before.  This match is the second match on Court 1 after the completion of a men's match.  The schedule of play begins at 1.00 PM BST.