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Another shocking lack of upsets saw all 10 seeds in action advance into the second round Tuesday on a day cut short by rain at Wimbledon, led, at least to the home crowd, by No. 2 seed Andy Murray winning an all-British match-up against Liam Broady 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.
ADHEREL
Broady, perhaps best known as the brother of WTA player Naomi who was cut from the LTA women’s program after posing scantily clad and provocatively next to a condom machine, and shared on social media, was no match for the former champ.
“My job is to learn from the French Open and one of the things I could have done better there is start the tournament quicker,” said Murray, wrapping his match right before the rains came. “I served pretty well. Offensively, there was good stuff. Defensively maybe I could have done a little better but it’s not that easy playing someone you know. We’re both out there just trying to win but it doesn’t make it any easier.”
Three other Top 10 players were in action as No. 4 Stan Wawrinka beat American and former No. 1 junior Taylor Fritz 7-6(4), 6-1, 6-7(2), 6-4; and No. 7 Richard Gasquet cruised past Brit Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.
“Taylor’s a great player, really talented for sure, and he has a lot of shots,” said Wawrinka of the American who won the third set after trailing 0-4, speaking to the BBC. “He’s really young and he has a lot of time in front of him to improve but you can already see that he’s a strong player.”
Lower-seeded winners into the second round were No. 12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 14 Roberto Bautista Agut, No. 15 Nick Kyrgios who ground down Radek “The Worm” Stepanek in four, No. 22 Feliciano Lopez who straight-setted Rajeev “Rampras” Ram, No. 25 Viktor Troicki, No. 26 Benoit Paire who outlasted Croat Franko Skugor 10-8 in the fifth, and No. 31 Joao Sousa who edged Russian Dmitry Tursunov in five, twice a set down.
“I do believe I can do good things in this tournament, go far, potentially win it,” Kyrgios said after beating The Worm. “We’re great friends, I knew it was going to be tough. To be honest, that’s a nightmare first round for anyone at Wimbledon. I could pick 90 guys in the draw that I would rather have played first round.”
Unseeded winners of note were former Slam champ Juan Martin Del Potro who will next meet the No. 4 Wawrinka, Gilles Muller winning a delayed match from Monday 15-13 in the fifth, and German “Downtown” Dustin Brown who will face the No. 15 seed Kyrgios.
“Great sensations after three years,” said del Potro, contesting his first Slam in almost three years after wrist injuries. “I been here in 2013 making semifinals in a great match against Djokovic. I never have the chance again to play on grasscourts. This year is completely different for myself and I am enjoying tennis a lot. Of course, when you win your first round, everything is much better. I’m looking forward to playing a great match against Wawrinka…I was close to quit tennis in the end of the last year. But now my [outlook] is completely different. I’m enjoying tennis again.”
Matches to watch for on Wednesday at the All England Club include (1) Novak Djokovic vs. Adrian Mannarino, (3) Roger Federer vs. Brit Marcus Willis, (16) Gilles Simon vs. Grigor Dimitrov, (19) Bernard “The Tank Engine” Tomic vs. Fernando “Hot Sauce” Verdasco, (18) John Isner vs. Marcos Baghdatis, and (13) David Ferrer vs. Nicolas Mahut.
WEDNESDAY WIMBLEDON SCHEDULE
CENTRE COURT – 1:00PM
1. Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) [3] v Kateryna Kozlova (UKR)
2. Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] v Adrian Mannarino (FRA)
3. Roger Federer (SUI) [3] v Marcus Willis (GBR)
NO.1 COURT – 1:00PM
1. Monica Puig (PUR) v Johanna Konta (GBR) [16]
2. Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) v Gilles Simon (FRA) [16]
3. Andreas Seppi (ITA) v Milos Raonic (CAN) [6]
NO.2 COURT – 11:30AM
1. Fernando Verdasco (ESP) v Bernard Tomic (AUS) [19]
2. Daniel Evans (GBR) v Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) [30]
3. Simona Halep (ROU) [5] v Francesca Schiavone (ITA)
4. Jana Cepelova (SVK) v Garbine Muguruza (ESP) [2]
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