American Liv Hovde is relishing the status of top seed within the girls’ draw after securing her place in the second round of the Junior Championships, Wimbledon with victory over lucky loser Ana Candiotto of Brazil.

Hovde dispatched Candiotto, who replaced Ranah Akua Stoiber in the draw after the Briton was forced to withdraw with a lower back injury. The 16-year-old prevailed 6-4 6-1 and now faces Ukraine’s Anastasiya Lopata for a place in round three.

Hovde has enjoyed a hugely encouraging season, rising to a career-high No 6 in the girls’ rankings after winning two titles and reaching the quarter-finals at the Roland Garros Junior Championships. She has also made her main draw debut at W60 level on the ITF World Tennis Tour.

One of the titles scooped by Hovde this year was claimed last week at J1 Roehampton, with six of the last nine girls to top the podium at the Wimbledon warm-up event proceeding to triumph at SW19.

Incidentally, the honour roll at J1 Roehampton contains some illustrious names with the likes of Belinda Bencic, Jelena Ostapenko and Coco Gauff all winning there in recent years. Hovde is keeping some exalted company and is buoyed by her latest success.

“Confidence is really important and you just have to have it, even if sometimes it is a case of, ‘fake it until you make it’,” Hovde told itftennis.com.

“It is always great to play a bunch of matches on grass like I did last week and winning that grass-court tournament gave me a lot of confidence, although I still had to come out and play at Wimbledon.  

“I was a bit nervous at the start, but I soon settled into playing my game and I am relieved to get off to a good start. What I am enjoying is being the top seed. I really like being one of the top seeds and it has been a goal of mine to be the top seed at a Grand Slam.”

Elsewhere in the girls’ draw, there was twin Canadian success as No. 5 seed Victoria Mboko and Kayla Cross both advanced after negotiating three-set matches. Mboko overcame Great Britain qualifier Sofia Johnson, while Cross outmanoeuvred Switzerland’s Chelsea Fontenel.

That takes the total of Canadians in the second round to four after No. 10 seed Annabelle Xu and Mia Kupres both emerged from their first-round matches yesterday without undue concern or alarm.

There were also wins for No. 6 seed Taylah Preston of Australia, who defeated Louise van den Broek of the Netherlands 7-5 7-5, and Hungary’s No. 7 seed Luca Udvardy following her triumph over Great Britain’s Daniela Piani.

No. 11 seed Johanne Christine Svendsen of Denmark, who earlier this year received a Grand Slam Player Grant financed through the Grand Slam Player Development Programme, also advanced courtesy of a straight-sets win against Mia Slama of the United States.