Wimbledon Unfriendly To Top Tennis Players

LONDON, TUESDAY – The results of matches indicating the defeat of seeded players are marked with the word "Upset" on the official Wimbledon website. This sign has become increasingly prevalent on the second day of the championship, which is still holding the first round matches.

In the competition at the All England Club, London, England, which took place on Tuesday (14/6/2025), a total of 11 seeded players were eliminated, including five top ten seeds in both men's and women's singles. The majority were women's singles seeds, namely Cori “Coco” Gauff (2), Jessica Pegula (3), and Zheng Qin Wen (5). Meanwhile, Alexander Zverev (3) and Lorenzo Musetti (7) contributed to the top ten men's singles seeds who only played one round.

The day before, out of the eight seeded players who were eliminated, three of them were ranked in the top ten. They are Daniil Medvedev (3) and Holger Rune (8) in men's singles, as well as Paula Badosa (9) in women's singles.

Pegula's defeat occurred after she arrived at the All England Club this year carrying the championship title from the grass court tournament, WTA 500 Bad Homburg, Germany, a week before Wimbledon. Meanwhile, Musetti and Medvedev are the semifinalists of Wimbledon 2024. In a press conference, Medvedev even mentioned that the grass courts are annoying.

Meanwhile, Coco competed at Wimbledon after winning the French Open Grand Slam three weeks earlier. She became the third female singles player to be eliminated in the first round of Wimbledon while holding the title of French Open champion. A similar fate was experienced by Justine Henin in 2005 and Francesca Schiavone in 2010.

Coco lost to Dayana Yastremska with a score of 6-7 (3), 1-6. This marks her second first-round defeat in the last three years at Wimbledon after 2023. Indeed, this oldest tennis tournament in the world is the Grand Slam that elevated Coco's name. She reached the fourth round in her debut at Wimbledon in 2019 as a qualifying player. Coco defeated Venus Williams in the first round.

After that, the fourth round remained his best run. He repeated that result in 2021 and 2024.

"In terms of mental state, I was overwhelmed after the French Open. I felt I didn't have enough time to celebrate my victory at Roland Garros and prepare for Wimbledon. I should have spent more time preparing on grass courts. Next time, I will do that," said Coco.

The gap between the French Open and Wimbledon is indeed quite short, lasting only three weeks. In fact, the two tournaments take place on court surfaces that have contrasting characteristics. The clay courts of Roland Garros reflect the ball slowly and at a high trajectory. Meanwhile, the grass courts of the All England Club cause the ball to bounce very quickly and at a low height.

Both types of courts are slippery so that players can move by sliding, but players have difficulty braking their movements on grass. So, footwork becomes an important skill on grass instead of just hard hits on serves and forehands.

The footwork is what Coco described as her weakness when facing Yastremska. "Dayana played very well. I have played on clay against her, and that surface suits me better, even though I had to play three sets to defeat her. I felt very bad in the locker room earlier. This result is frustrating," said Coco.

Before losing at Wimbledon, Coco had always won in three encounters with Yastremska, all of which took place on clay courts. Most recently, Coco defeated the Ukrainian player in the second round of the WTA 1000 Madrid in May, with a score of 0-6, 6-2, 7-5.

At the All England Club, Yastremska broke Coco's serve first, in the sixth game of the first set, to take a 4-2 lead. Coco responded immediately in the next game, taking the opening set to a tiebreak.

In the battle for the first seven points, Coco's weaknesses were exposed. She made two double faults in the battle for the first six points, which were part of nine double faults in the match. The world number two still has work to do to improve her serve. She became the women's singles player with the most double faults since 2024.

Before Coco lost, the second day of the tournament began with Pegula's defeat. She played in the first match on Court 2, which started two to two and a half hours earlier than the first matches on Court 1 and the Main Court.

Pegula faced the world-ranked 116th player, Elisabetta Cocciaretto, and lost 2-6, 3-6 in just 58 minutes. This marks the fastest defeat of a top five seeded player in a Grand Slam since Anett Kontaveit lost in the second round of Wimbledon 2022. Kontaveit, who was the second seed, also lost to Jule Niemeier 4-6, 0-6, in the same duration of 58 minutes.

About three hours later, Zheng was eliminated by Katerina Siniakova with a score of 5-7, 6-4, 1-6. The Chinese tennis player, a finalist at the 2024 Australian Open, has been eliminated in the first round of Wimbledon for the third consecutive time.

The elimination of Coco, Zheng, and Pegula in the first round indicates a highly competitive landscape in women's singles. The Wimbledon champion has changed hands since 2016.

However, Pegula should have been able to advance further as she has the experience of winning a grass court tournament, the WTA Bad Homburg. The title she secured after defeating Iga Swiatek in the final is her second at a grass court tournament.

"Did I play well in the match? Of course not. I played badly and Cocciaretto played very well. First and second serves were very good, groundstrokes direction too. I respect him," Pegula said on the official Wimbledon website.

Defending champion Barbora Krejcikova did not have a good start to her first match of the year. She dropped the first set against 20-year-old Filipina Alexandra Eala. However, in a match that was marked by more unforced errors from both players, Krejcikova was able to escape with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory.

In the men's singles competition, Zverev's hopes of winning his first Grand Slam title were not realized. He lost to Arthur Rinderknech with scores of 6-7 (3), 7-6 (8), 3-6, 7-6 (5), 4-6, with a total duration of four hours and 40 minutes. This match was completed over two days as it could not be finished by midnight local time on Monday.

The only solid performer in singles was the world number one tennis player, Jannik Sinner, who won 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 against Luca Nardi. Seven-time Wimbledon champion, Novak Djokovic, proved too strong for Alexandre Muller despite losing one set. Djokovic won 6-1, 6-7 (7), 6-2, 6-2.

The competition on the third day will begin with the second round featuring two Wimbledon champions who will compete on Centre Court. The men's singles champion of 2023 and 2024, Carlos Alcaraz, will face the home player, Oliver Target. Meanwhile, the women's singles champion of 2023, Marketa Vondrousova, will go up against another home star, Emma Raducanu. (AFP/AP/Reuters)