2019 Wimbledon - Day Two Drama

Roger Federer lost the first set in his opening match in this years Wimbledon, but when the Swiss great decided to be serious against South African Lloyd Harris, the outcome wasn’t pretty. 18 games to 5 in the three sets that mattered, and Federer was out of here in under two hours.

Nadal was almost as quick, but meaner in terms of sets donated - none - as Yuichi Sugita made little impression on the scoreboard.

Two Americans, finalists in the Antalya tournament last week, put previous Grand Slam finalists to the sword.  Taylor Fritz won in Turkey, and he destroyed 2010 Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych in straight sets. Of greater significance was Sam Querrey’s dominance of last month’s Roland Garros finalist Dominic Thiem (5). The pair were even through the first two and a bit sets, before Querrey launched a savage assault on the Austrian fifth seed, winning the final two sets 6-3 6-0.

Nick Kyrgios was taken the distance by fellow Australian Jordan Thompson, but prevailed 6-1 in the fifth, and won a second round clash with Nadal.

Another Aussie, Bernard Tomic was lamentable - his presence on court against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga lasted a mere 58 minutes, a display bereft of any effort, embarrassing his country.

Other seeds:

Denis Shapovalov (29) lost to Ricardas Berankis

Laslo Djere (31) defeated Guido Andreozzi 

Gilles Simon (20) defeated Salvatore Caruso 

Fabio Fognini (12) defeated Frances Tiafoe 

Marin Cilic (13) defeated Adrian Mannarino 

Nikoloz Basilashvili (18) defeated James Ward 

Kei Nishikori (8) defeated Thiago Monteiro 

Alex de Minaur (25) defeated Marco Cecchinato 

Jan-Lennard Struff (33) defeated Radu Albot 

John Isner (9) defeated Casper Ruud 

Matteo Berrettini (17) defeated Aljaz Bedene 

Diego Schwartzman (24) defeated Matthew Ebden 

Lucas Pouille (27) defeated Richard Gasquet 

Ash Barty, the world number one, did anything but embarrass Australia, as she began her campaign with a straight sets victory over Zheng Saisai. The much advertised path of peril for Barty included potential matches against Sveta Kuznetsova in the second round, and Garbiñe Muguruza (26) in round three.

Well, both those dual Grand Slam champions are gone - first round losers to Alison Van Uytvanck and Beatriz Haddad Maia respectively.

Other Grand Slam title holders, Maria Sharapova and Samantha Stosur, also departed in round one, Paula Parmentier and Carla Suárez Navarro (30) the victors.

Tournaments leading into Wimbledon included Birmingham and Eastbourne. Birmingham finalists were Barty and Julia Goerges (18). Both won opening round clashes. Angie Kerber (5) was a finalist in Eastbourne, and won her opener as well.

As did the following seeds:

Belinda Bencic (13) defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 

Serena Williams (11) defeated Giulia Gatto-Monticone

Kiki Bertens (4) defeated Mandy Minella

Elise Mertens (21) defeated Fiona Ferro

Wang Qiang (15) defeated Vera Lapko 

Sloane Stephens (9) defeated Timea Bacsinszky 

Johanna Konta (19) defeated Ana Bogdan

Amanda Anisimova (25) defeated Sorana Cîrstea 

Petra Kvitová (6) defeated Ons Jabeur 

Donna Vekic (22) lost to Alison Riske 

Lesia Tsurenko (32) lost to Barbora Strycova