Federer, Nadal Shake Off Early Trouble At Wimbledon, Thiem Tumbles; Djokovic, Auger-Aliassime Return
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Tennis greats Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal opened play Tuesday at Wimbledon. Federer was up first on Centre Court against the unheralded Lloyd Harris who had never won a grass court match before. But early on, it sure didn’t look like it.
Harrison grabbed an early break and held on to stun Federer taking the first set. Federer quickly right the ship and dominated from there scoring a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 in under two hours.
“I just felt like [the court] was slow,” Federer said. “I couldn’t really have any impact. He was doing a good job of returning me… I wasn’t hitting my spots, and he was reading my serve, or he was just doing a good job,” Federer said. “I just struggled. As my legs weren’t moving, it’s hard to see the short ball. In defence, you’re weak. The next thing you know you’re struggling. That’s what I had going.
“But I think with my experience I stayed calm. I know I have other things in the bag that I can come up with, other tricks. I just took a bit of time.”
Federer nice week one draw puts him into a match with British wildcard Jay Clarke who beat Noah Rubin.
“I wasn’t thinking about it at all, to be honest,” Clarke said of facing Federer. “I know how tough Noah is to play. I’ve seen him play a lot of the same ATP Challengers as me. Like I said, to beat him would have been a good win. I’d have been happy with that. He was a bit of extra motivation to get through.”
Rafael Nadal was last on Court 1 and he too went down an early break. But from 2-0 against qualifier Yuichi Sugita, the 2-time Wimbledon winner rolled to a 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 victory for his 8th straight win.
“A good start for me, winning in straight sets against a player that knows how to play on grass. He won a tournament. He won against good players on this surface. So it’s a positive start for me,” Nadal said. “I have another day tomorrow to keep working on the things that I need to work. I hope that’s going to help me.”
The win sets up a huge Thursday second round show with Nick Kyrgios. The combustible Australian won a tough 5-setter over countryman Jordan Thompson 7-6-(4), 3-6, 7-6(10), 0-6, 6-1. Thompson had chances in that third set and led by a break. Kyrgios all but tanked the fifth then kicked it back into gear for a dominant fifth set.
“I’ll play against a top talent player, a very dangerous player,” Nadal said. “He’s a very dangerous opponent. Of course, second round it’s a super tough one. I know that. I need to be at my 100 per cent. I’m going to fight for it.”
Kyrgios beat Nadal the only time they player at Wimbledon back in 2014, and he also beat the former No. 1 in their last meeting at Acapulco earlier this year.
“As soon as the draw came out, I was super happy that I saw him in my section. It’s more exciting,” said Kyrgios. “When you’re a kid, you want to play the best players in the world on I think is the best court in the world. This is something that I can’t take for granted. There’s no guarantee I’m going to be here again in this position. I’m going to grasp it with both hands, go out there and give it my best shot.”
It was a good day for the American men. Sam Querrey pulled the biggest upset in the men’s draw bouncing No. 5 seed Dominic Thiem 6-7(4), 7-6(1), 6-3, 6-0. Thiem had a look at a 2-set lead in the second, but when that failed his game failed and Querrey dominated. The French finalist managed just five total points in a miserable showing in the fourth set.
“I have played matches before where I have had six break points didn’t get them,” said Thiem. “The guy has one, gets it, and then, like, ‘Why does that happen?’ That’s kind of what it felt like. I feel like from his end maybe he felt like he had those opportunities, those chances, didn’t get them.
“Then, especially against a big server like myself, it’s a little draining once you lose serve and kind of took the wind out of his sails a little bit.”
Querrey now has big wins over Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and now the Austrian.
“I made the semi-finals of Houston, and then I had an abdomen injury,” said Querrey. “So I didn’t play for about three months, which was a tough little injury that was just lingering. It’s all better now, and last week went really well. My first tournament back in a while. That momentum is kind of still there, and luckily I like playing on grass. So I’m glad after an injury I got to come back and play Eastbourne.”
A semifinalist from a year ago, John Isner made a successful return from a stress fracture in his foot to beat Casper Ruud in three sets. Tayor Fritz also advanced in three sets over the ailing former finalist Tomas Berdych. Steve Johnson and Tennys Sandgren were also winners. But Fognini Fognini went five sets to deny Frances Tiafoe.
“I feel pretty good. I’m happy. I was just happy to be back out there. Of course happy to win,” said Isner, who made his first Grand Slam semi-final here last year. “It was touch and go for a little bit whether I was going to play this tournament. So I was just happy to be back out there. If I didn’t win, as long as I walked off the court healthy, I would have been happy with that.”
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori advanced while Denis Shapovalov’s struggles continued as the Canadian went down to Recardis Berankis.
The new Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime returns to take on young Frenchman Corentin Moutet. Former finalist Milos Raonic is also back on court Wednesday along with 2018 finalists Novak Djokovic and Kevin Anderson.
Queen’s champ Feliciano Lopez takes on big Russian Karen Khachanov and Kyle Edmund meets Fernando Verdasco.
WEDNESDAY WIMBLEDON SCHEDULE
CENTRE COURT – SHOW COURT – 13:00 START
Monica Puig (PUR) vs Karolina Pliskova (CZE) [3]
Kyle Edmund (GBR) [30] vs Fernando Verdasco (ESP)
Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] vs Denis Kudla (USA)
No.1 COURT – SHOW COURT – 13:00 START
Heather Watson (GBR) vs Anett Kontaveit (EST) [20]
Karen Khachanov (RUS) [10] vs Feliciano Lopez (ESP)
Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) [14] vs Veronika Kudermetova (RUS)
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