Fresh off her first grasscourt WTA title in Eastbourne, world No.18 Dominika Cibulkova summoned her best tennis to beat world No.53 Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia in the first round of Wimbledon 2016.
The 1999 Wimbledon semifinalist Lucic-Baroni started out strong, going 3-1 up and having a chance to break for a 4-1 lead. However, her forehand on break point went long, Cibulkova held her serve, and leveled to 3-3 in the next game. A tight battle followed, especially in the eighth game in which Cibulkova wasted three break points, but the Slovak used her big chance in the twelfth game and broke Lucic-Baroni's serve to avoid a tiebreak and take the set 7-5 in one hour and 15 minutes.