Britain’s Marcus Willis, the world number 772, celebrates his victory over 54th-ranked Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis 6-3 6-3 6-4 on day one of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Monday, June 27, 2016.
Advertisement
She needs one more Grand Slam championship to equal Steffi Graf’s Open-era record of 22 titles. In the second set, Williams made four unforced errors in one game to get broken and fall behind 2-1.
The match ended on a successful line challenge by Williams after she hit a backhand return that was called long. “No one wants to play Radek here”, he told reporters after his 6-4 6-3 6-7 (9) 6-1 win.
The second-seeded Spaniard won the first set 6-2 against Camila Giorgi, but the Italian has won the second set 7-5 to force a decisive third.
Play has started on the outside courts at Wimbledon after a rain delay of about an hour.
Sam Querrey came all the way back after losing the first two sets to pull out a 12-10 victory in the fifth and reach the second round at Wimbledon.
The 65th-ranked Fritz, making his Wimbledon debut, was the youngest man in the draw.
Calling the exit “disappointing”, Ivanovic said her wrist had been bothering her for two weeks. Gasquet reached the Wimbledon semifinals past year, while Tsonga made it to the semis in 2011 and 2012. In 1938, he completed the only true Grand Slam other than Laver’s pair.
The only 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 at the All England Club came in 1987, when Stefan Edberg beat Stefan Eriksson in the first round.
The retractable roof has been closed for the opening Centre Court match on Day 3 at Wimbledon.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic got halfway to the second “triple bagel” – 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 – in Wimbledon history before dropping a game, then wasn’t quite as flawless the rest of the way in a first-round victory.
The 36-year-old Williams, the oldest woman in the draw and playing in her 19th Wimbledon, saved two set points when the 20-year-old Vekic failed to serve out the first set at 6-5. “The first set, there were some hairy moments there, down some set points, but I guess that’s where experience sets in”.
Under cloudy skies, play began on schedule on the outside courts at the All England Club.
When the players met at the net after Williams’ return victor ended the match, they embraced like old friends.
Among the top women, No. 6 Roberta Vinci – who stunned Williams at the U.S. Open last year, ending the American’s bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam – beat Alison Riske of the U.S. 6-2, 5-7, 6-3; No. 13 Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated unseeded Caroline Wozniacki, a former No. 1 who hasn’t won a match at a major in 2016; and No. 27 CoCo Vandeweghe of the U.S. had little trouble getting past Kateryna Bondarenko 6-2, 7-6 (3) under the roof in the day’s last match.
Next up on Centre Court was defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic, who faced Adrian Mannarino, a Frenchman playing on his 28th birthday.
Defending women’s champion and six-time victor Williams opens play on Centre Court against 148th-ranked Swiss qualifier Amra Sadikovic, making her first appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament.
Wimbledon’s most generous pay cheque yet means its victor will earn roughly £200,000 more than Djokovic and Garbine Muguruza were paid for winning the French Open in May, and the same sum Djokovic and Angelique Kerber pocketed from this year’s Australian Open.
Djokovic looked right back at home Monday as he ran off the first nine games against Ward, ranked 177th in the world and granted a wild-card entry into the grass-court Grand Slam.
Advertisement
Monday’s Centre Court schedule also features French Open women’s champion Garbine Muguruza against Italy’s Camila Giorgi, and seven-time men’s victor Roger Federer against Guido Pella of Argentina.
