Wimbledon is back! The first week of the biggest event in the tennis calendar ended yesterday and is set to resume today. If you haven’t been able to keep up with Wimbledon as much as you would have liked, then here are the biggest points from the first week in SW19.
First week upsets in Wimbledon are as commonplace as strawberries with cream and pigeons and unfriendly hawks. Each year, a bullish trailblazer shocks veterans and ageing champions looking for a breakthrough.
Medvedev defeats Wawrinka:
All the top 10 seeds in the Men’s draw have progressed to the 3rd round apart from Stan Wawrinka. Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam he’s yet to win, so the hunt for a Career Grand Slam goes on.
Having been runner up in the French Open just three weeks ago, many were expecting Wawrinka to put on a great showing at Wimbledon, on the contrary however, he had the shortest stay of the top seeds.
The Swiss was struggling with a knee injury and lost 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to Daniil Medvedev on Centre Court in the first round at the All England Club.
No fairy-tale return for Petra Kvitova:
World No 95 Madison Brengle shocked 11th seed Petra Kvitova 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 in the second round at Wimbledon.
Kvitova, who won Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, had been favored by some British bookmakers to lift the trophy at the end of the fortnight, despite competing in only her third tournament of her comeback. She was attacked by a knife-wielding intruder at her home in the Czech Republic in December and needed surgery on her left hand, the one she uses to hold a racket.
Still without full strength in that hand — even clenching it for a celebratory fist pump remains difficult — Kvitova returned at the French Open in May, losing in the second round there. But then she won a grass-court title at Birmingham in June.
Mattek-Sands’ horror knee injury:
An injury that you would expect to see on a football or rugby pitch, it was an awful sight to see American Mattek-Sands clutching her leg in agony following a dislocated knee after slipping in the third set of her match vs Romanian, Sorana Cirstea.
3rd seed Pliskova goes out:
Karolina Pliskova became the highest-seeded player to fall at Wimbledon, losing to Magdalena Rybarikova in the second round.
Third seed Pliskova was the runner-up at the U.S. Open last year and had reached at least the quarterfinals of her last three Grand Slam events. Despite the 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 loss, Pliskova still has a chance to move up to World No 1 in the rankings after Wimbledon depending on how Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep fare the rest of the tournament.
Early exit for Juan Martin del Potro:
Juan Martin del Potro lost to unseeded Latvian Ernests Gulbis 4-6, 4-6, 6(3)-7. In the match, Gulbis had 25 aces and was only broken once. He had twice as many winners as his opponent, outnumbering Del Potro 60-30.
Del Potro, a Wimbledon semi-finalist in 2013, was pushed to the brink of retirement after three wrist surgeries.
So, the Argentine 29th seed has an extra appreciation for Gulbis's achievement, even if he would have preferred not to be on the receiving end of the upset.
"I know how good is Ernests on grass and if he has a good day, he can beat all the guys, because he already made it in the past," Del Potro said.
It’s been a very eventful first week at Wimbledon and as we approach the business end of the tournament, we are very excited to see who manages to come out on top.
