LONDON—Tuesday’s action on Centre Court commenced with a potentially crackling match between two former number ones. In one corner stood the dangerous and vocal floater, Victoria Azarenka. Her opponent, the opaque but lethal seventh-seed, Karolina Pliskova.

But in the end, much of the drama was severely blunted. With the precision of a dentist filling a cavity, Pliskova took 72 minutes to anaesthetize Azarenka, 6-3, 6-3, and reach the third round of Wimbledon for the first time in her career.

Said Pliskova, “It was so far one of my best matches on grass, for sure. I mean, she's always tough, so it's never easy.”

The most notable contrast in this matchup tilted around volume. Azarenka is the one with the ceaseless grunt, the vocal fuel that has taken her to two Grand Slam singles titles. In full glory, Azarenka nicely blends will and skill, excellent movement, fine groundstrokes (the backhand most of all) and a spirited brand of intensity.

Pliskova offers nothing. Not a sound, nary a fist pump, scarcely a scurry. Azarenka is a chase scene, a New York City cop who plops the siren on top of the car and careens through the streets. Pliskova is pure stealth, that silent assassin who lurks in the shadows and then fires a fatal dart. In the spirit of such liquid-smooth players with Czech roots as Martina Hingis and Miloslav Mecir, Pliskova is quite adept at redirecting the ball, delaying her swing until the last minute and then rocketing a down-the-line laser. Even when she misses—often in a languid, lazy manner—Pliskova conducts herself with unsettling tranquility.

“You do not need to leave your room,” said another Czech, the writer Franz Kafka. “Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”

Or in tennis terms, why run when you can simply be there?

Addressing Pliskova’s skills, Azarenka said, “She has a kind of like heavy, flat game, and I think she doesn't look that she's very fast, but I think she has a good anticipation of where the ball is going.”

WATCH—Match point from Pliskova's win over Azarenka:

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Amid a rather flat Centre Court atmosphere—Pliskova’s form of emotional novocaine?—Azarenka early on dispensed a flurry of groundstroke errors that helped Pliskova break for 3-1 in the first set. Wide forehands and backhands, netted returns, hardly a hint of point construction, Azarenka played as if in a trance.

Yet as much as Azarenka tried to snap out of the spell—including a gritty escape to hold from 1-4, love-30—Pliskova remained cucumber-cool.  Serving at 4-2, 30-all, she curled a fine overhead for a winner. On the next point, Pliskova fired a superb serve, 108 M.P.H. right down the T. There followed a half-raised fist pump. Two games later, serving at 5-3, Pliskova began the game with a silky smooth untouchable down-the-line forehand for 15-0, a service winner on the next point and a down-the-line backhand winner to go up 40-love. Two points later, she’d taken the first set.

Said Azarenka, “I didn't necessarily connect with the momentum of the match and she did. And she took those opportunities.”

The paradoxical pattern continued in the second set. However expressive and determined Azarenka was with her vexing grunt, she was hardly conversing tactically. What was the plan for breaking up Pliskova’s game? Azarenka fought, but at heart mostly just reacted.

Across the net, Pliskova remained mute—but said everything with her racquet, drip by drip, racking up points. Pliskova’s subtle movement, deceptive power and sustained depth continued to keep Azarenka off-balance, uncertain of her court positioning, ill-equipped to calibrate offense and defense. Not once did Azarenka reach break point.

At 3-all, Pliskova broke Azarenka, subsequently playing a superb service game that included a flyswatter-like forehand winner. At 4-3, 40-30, off an angled Azarenka forehand, Pliskova again waited to time her swing and unleashed a down-the-line forehand winner to go up. Hoping to at least make Pliskova serve out the match, Azarenka played one of her worst games of the match, tossing in two double-faults and then sailing a backhand long. Though Azarenka surely has the goods to make more loud statements at the majors, on this occasion, she’d been silenced.

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Silence of the Slams: Pliskova subdues Azarenka in second round

Silence of the Slams: Pliskova subdues Azarenka in second round

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