LONDON, July 5. /TASS/. Russia’s Yekaterina Aleksandrova advanced to the second round of the 2023 Wimbledon tournament on Wednesday, securing a straight sets win over her opponent Emma Navarro of the United States 6-4; 6-3.

Aleksandrova is the 21st-seed at the tournament and is playing under a neutral status. In the next round, she is set to face another US player, Madison Brengle, who defeated Sara Errani of Italy in her opening round match at the tournament.

The 28-year-old Russian tennis player is currently ranked 22nd in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Rankings. Aleksandrova has won four WTA tournaments while seeing limited success in Grand Slam tournaments, where she has never cleared the third round.

This season’s third Grand Slam tennis tournament, Wimbledon, kicked off on July 3 and unlike the previous edition of the tournament last year, Russian players were allowed to compete, but under certain conditions.

The Wimbledon tournament, the most prestigious out of the four Grand Slam tournaments, has been held annually in London since 1877. It took place last year between June 27 and July 10. This year’s Wimbledon runs between July 3 and 16.

Russia is represented in men’s singles by Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Aslan Karatsev. Russia’s Karen Khachanov announced earlier that he would skip this year’s tournament because of a bad back.

The women’s draw includes six Russians: Daria Kasatkina, Veronika Kudermetova, Lyudmila Samsonova, Yekaterina Aleksandrova, Anastasia Potapova and Mirra Andreeva.