Wimbledon – Day 1 (1R)

There was no rain at Wimbledon last year, just for the sixth time in history of the oldest tournament in tennis (it happened also in 1931, 1976, 1977, 1993, 1995), but the rain fell down as early as on the first day of this year’s event. 18 out of 32 matches have been finished, 10 other postponed to Tuesday, 4 pairs supposed to play, didn’t even step onto the court… The defending champion, Rafael Nadal [1], despite a sloppy start (2:4*, 30 all), won easily his first match against Michael Russell 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. Nadal’s potential semifinal opponent – Andy Murray – had some troubles through a set and half with a clay-courter Daniel Gimeno-Traver in the first match of this year’s Wimbledon which was played indoors. Gimeno held his serve in the first 8 games, but when was broken for the first time, couldn’t hold his serve to the end of the match, and Murray won 15 games in a row to notch a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 victory. As usual, grass opens a possibility to serve more aces than anywhere. Today displayed it Milos Raonic [25], Mardy Fish [9] and Gilles Muller [92] – the first two guys served almost 30 aces winning all service games, the third one hit almost 40, but was broken twice. Fish during his 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 win over Marcel Granollers, wasn’t even forced to save a single break point, although the American didn’t show anything impressive beside his serve. Muller and Raonic face each other next and we can expect a battle of serves, the winner of this match will very likely take up to a third round clash with Nadal.

Longest match:
3 hours, 44 minutes: Ryan Sweeting d. Pablo Andujar 3-6, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(1), 6-1

Most aces:
37 – Gilles Muller, defeated Tommy Haas in 4 sets

5-set barometer:

6-4 Julien Benneteau
1-0 Ryan Sweeting
0-1 Ruben Bemelmans
0-2 Pablo Andujar