A scheduler’s nightmare can be a tennis fan’s dream when the weather finally clears.
With Wimbledon playing catch-up after only eight matches were finished on Tuesday, the order of play on Day 3 featured 87 singles squeezed on to 18 match courts.
Although early rain showers meant completing that number was always ambitious, there were still big stories galore once SW19 enjoyed uninterrupted play from midway through the afternoon.
Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk provided one of the big talking points as she recorded her first top-10 win in 15 attempts to take out the No.8 seed Maria Sakkari on No.2 Court.
The result was all the more remarkable after the 21-year-old world No.36 lost the opening set 6-0, only to battle through 0-6, 7-5, 6-2. The victory earns her a second round meeting with Spain’s Paula Badosa.
Sixteen-year-old qualifier Mirra Andreeva made it four grass court wins in just over a week - and enjoyed a first Wimbledon main draw victory - edging out China’s Xiyu Wang 7-5 in the decider.
The teenager reached the third round at Roland-Garros as a qualifier. Her next test is against No.10 seed Barbora Krejcikova.
Big names to go through early in the day included former US Open champion Sloane Stephens on Court 14 and a little further down the same row of courts a Grand Slam runner-up, Danielle Collins.
Stephens, who won the US Open in 2017, outplayed Rebecca Peterson 6-2, 6-3 and next meets experienced grass court player and No.20 seed Donna Vekic. Collins got past Julia Grabher in straight sets to set up a second round date with Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic.
Other seeds in the ladies' draw to win on Wednesday included No.13 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia, 2017 Roland-Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko and No.25 seed Madison Keys.
On the men’s side, the big shock on Day 3 came when much-fancied American Sebastian Korda went out in four sets 7-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 to Czech lefty Jiri Vesely.
Korda reached the semi-finals at Queen’s during the run-up to The Championships and was being talked about as a player who could make a deep run in the bottom half of the draw.
It was a much better day for many of the other American men in action however.
Taylor Fritz finished off his heldover match with German Yannick Hanfmann to win 6-3 in the fifth set, while Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul both eased through in straight sets.
Paul will next face 2016 finalist Milos Raonic who won his first match at the Club since he was last here in 2019 following a catalogue of injury problems.
Youngster Ben Shelton won his first Wimbledon match with a five set victory over Japanese lucky loser Taro Daniel, and there was more good news for the US as recent Mallorca champion Christopher Eubanks and Marcos Giron recorded wins.
Other notable scorelines included No.6 seed Holger Rune winning his first match at The Championships, former semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov cruising through, and No.24 seed Denis Shapovalov coming back from a set down to get past qualifier Radu Albot.
There were defeats for seeds Borna Coric, Roberto Bautista Agut and Tallon Griekspoor.
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