MEN’S defending champion Jannik Sinner flirted with a first-round exit before passing a stern physical test on the opening day of Wimbledon but several seeds departed on a day when defeats for British players piled up.
Novak Djokovic launched his latest bid for a record-equalling eighth Wimbledon title and standalone 25th Grand Slam crown with a battling 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-4 win over China’s plucky Wu Yibing.
Still fiercely competitive at the age of 39, Djokovic is looking to equal Roger Federer’s tally at the All England Club and go past Margaret Court in the all-time list of Grand Slam titles, and he showed flair and fight to stay on track.
Women’s top seed Aryna Sabalenka , who left Paris in a “deep, dark place” after losing the last 10 games of her quarter-final against Diana Shnaider, followed Sinner on to Centre Court and breezed past Serbian qualifier Teodora Kostovic 6-2 6-3.
With chief rival Carlos Alcaraz injured, Sinner is the big favourite to retain his crown but arrived with question marks over his stamina after collapsing to a shock second-round defeat at the French Open.
When he lost the first and third sets to Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic on Centre Court he looked in danger of becoming only the third defending men’s champion to lose in round one but battled to win 4-6 6-3 6-7(6) 6-2 6-3.
While Sinner lived to fight another day, men’s 11th and 12th seeds Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev bowed out.
Ruud was handed a tough draw in the shape of big-serving Pole Hubert Hurkacz and duly lost 6-4 6-2 7-6(7) while Rublev was edged out in a five-set cliffhanger against fellow Russian Roman Safiullin, losing a decider set tiebreaker 14-12 after missing two match points.
There was heartbreak too for surprise French Open runner-up Maja Chwalinska as she lost 2-6 7-5 6-2 to Thai qualifier Mananchaya Sawangkaew yesterday after the Pole fell and hurt herself while on match point.
Japan’s Naomi Osaka once again dressed to impress and her tennis shone too as the 14th seed beat Elsa Jacquemot 6-1 7-5.
American fourth seed Jessica Pegula beat Darja Vidmanova 7-5 6-3 while Swiss 11th seed Belinda Bencic had far too much experience for young British wildcard Mika Stojsavljevic.
It was a grim day for the home nation.
Twenty-one players, including 12 wildcards, were in the first round draw but after Emma Raducanu withdrew with an injury on the eve of the tournament, she was followed yesterday by Jack Draper who announced he was also pulling out with an arm injury.
Six other home players did take to court but all six lost, including British number one Cameron Norrie, seeded 26, beaten in five sets by American qualifier Michael Zheng.
Sinner racked up his 94th Grand Slam match-win, equalling the Italian record of Nicola Pietrangeli, but shed plenty of sweat and a little blood in reaching that mark.
“It was a little tight in the beginning, I didn’t play at my best but I tried to get into it. It was my first official match on grass (this season) which is also a very important factor,” Sinner told the Centre Court crowd.
“I’m happy I turned it around because the third set was a very tough one to swallow.”
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