Things are rolling and rolling for Swiatek and Djokovic. The world number 1 inaugurated the court number 1 by defeating the Chinese Lin Zhu (34th) 6-1, 6-3 in 1h20 when the Serb (2nd) inaugurated the Center Court, with the key victory in 2h12 (excluding an hour and a half rain break) against the Argentinian Pedro Cachin (68th) 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4). For Swiatek, whose grass is not the preferred surface, she never passed the round of 16 at Wimbledon despite winning Roland-Garros three times (2020, 2022, 2023) and the US once. Open (2022), such dominance was not assured in advance.
“I feel confident, I did a good job,” savored the 22-year-old Polish, especially since Zhu was the highest ranked player she could face in the first round as the first unseeded player. .
29th straight win at Wimbledon
For the man with 23 Grand Slam titles, we expected no less. With that success on Monday, Djokovic notched a 29th straight Wimbledon victory since losing in the quarterfinals in 2017. He has since gone unbeaten with four consecutive titles. A fifth on July 16 would allow her to equal the record of eight Wimbledon titles held by Roger Federer, one length from the absolute record of Martina Navratilova.
He also added a 40th victory in a row on Center Court and a 22nd consecutive Grand Slam victory (he won every Major since Wimbledon last year except the US Open where he could not return for lack of anti-covid vaccination). However, as he pointed out, the first matches at Wimbledon are tricky because he does not play preparation tournaments to move from clay to grass. However, these are two surfaces “completely different in terms of style of play, tactics”, he added while recalling that he had managed to make the transition in recent years and that he saw “no reason to think” that he would not succeed again.
The return of the banished
Russians and Belarusians were banned from Wimbledon last year in retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But under pressure in particular from the ATP and the WTA who had withdrawn the ranking points from him last year, the tournament has reinstated them this year. Among them, Victoria Azarenka (20th), twice semi-finalist in London (2011, 2012) and Andrey Rublev (7th) who hopes to finally surpass the 8th finals.
Azarenka ended up beating Chinese Yue Yuan (106th) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 and Rublev defeated Australian Max Purcell (64th) 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. “Today, hearing the audience shout at me, ‘Come on Vika!’ and support me, that’s also why I play (…) It’s a very pleasant feeling”, admitted Azarenka. Rublev, who was also popular with the public, said a solution “could have been found” last year.
“If we really want to help, or do what’s best for tennis and for people, I think there were objectively better options than the ban. Because, at the end of the day, it didn’t nothing changed. They hurt themselves,” he added in reference to the organizers.
The blow of the cloth
Rain disrupted the day for an hour and a half, including on Center Court, which has a roof. When the first drops fell, the match being played there between Djokovic and Cachin was quickly interrupted to close the roof.
But the grass did not dry there and the match did not resume. So after a while, Djokovic came back with a towel and started wiping the court, causing great laughter in the audience. Nothing helped, the match only resumed once the sun returned… roof reopened.