Where do I start? What a day of tennis and it is only day 1 of the Championships. The day started on a disappointing note, the covers were on the courts as the rain drizzled down. The start of play on the outside courts was delayed by, I think, 4 hours. Centre court and Court 1 have a roof so those courts were thankfully able to start on time. Sabalenka was first on, on court 1 and she raced to a 6-1; 3-0 lead before letting her opponent back into the match by making unforced errors. Thankfully she managed to hold on and take the 2nd set 6-4 making her the first player through to the 2nd round at Wimbledon 2021. The first match on centre saw the young Brit, Draper, take on the defending champion, Novak Djokovic. Djokovic looked a bit rusty in the first set and wasn’t able to convert any of his 6 break points. Draper couldn’t believe his luck as he took the first set 6-4. Djokovic kept his cool and went back to basics. He took the next 3 sets – 6;1; 6-2; 6-2. Tsitsipas was next on court 1 and his opponent was Frances Tiafoe. The crowd was loving Tiafoe’s positive energy on court and he used that to his advantage. Tiafoe managed to cause a massive upset as he beat the Roland Garros runner-up and number 3 seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas, in straight sets. At the same time there was a big upset in the making as Sloane Stephens had taken the first set over 2 time Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova. Kvitova was looking her best and couldn’t hit back. Another upset as Stephens knocked out 10th seed Kvitova. Swiatek looked very good as she beat Hseih in straight sets. Last match on centre court was the crowd favourite Andy Murray against Basilashvilli. Murray was loving the crowd and looking like his old self as he raced to a 6-4; 6-3; 5-0 lead. Murray who has only won 2 matches in 2021 looked nervous. Somehow Basilashvilli broke back 3 times and the score was all of a sudden 5-5. Basilashvilli managing to rattle 7 games in a row to take the third set 7-5. The crowd was stunned, Murray couldn’t believe it and the commentators were speechless. Surely Murray doesn’t lose it from here. How would he recover? The roof had to come on so the players left the court. This break helping to break Basilashvilli’s momentum. Murray coming out and looked good again as he took the 4th set 6-3. Home favourite is through to the 2nd round.

Onto the fantasy league. Less than half of round 1 is done so don’t stress if you are near the bottom of the leaderboard. The picks that lost today were: Tsitsipas (31 picks), Sinner (10 picks), Davidovich Fokina (7 picks), Delbonis (2 picks), Kvitova (13 picks), Kuznetsova (9 picks), Hseih (1 pick), Wang (2 picks) and Watson (1 pick).

Our first leader of Wimbledon 2021 is ‘Nutty Choice 2’ with 33 points. ‘Strawberries and Scream’ right behind with 29 points. 4 teams are yet to get off the mark. As I said earlier many players still need to play so it will be interesting to see if our leaders can maintain their lead.

Bring on Day 2!!! Lets hope there isn’t a rain delay again.

Match results on Day 1:

• Djokovic(1) beat Draper(W) – 4-6; 6-1; 6-2; 6-2
• Tiafoe beat Tsitsipas(3) – 6-4; 6-4; 6-3
• Kudla beat Davidovich Fokina(30) – 5-7; 4-6; 7-6(4); 6-3; 6-3
• Anderson beat Barrios Vera – 6-7(4); 6-4; 6-4; 7-6(4)
• Fucsovics beat Sinner(19) – 5-7; 6-3; 7-5; 6-3
• Koepfer beat Opelka(27) – 6-4; 7-6(3); 6-2
• Murray beat Basilashvilli(24) – 6-4; 6-3; 5-7; 6-3
• Golubic beat Kudermetova(29) – 3-6; 6-1; 11-9
• Stephens beat Kvitova(10) – 6-3; 6-3
• Ahn beat Watson – 2-6; 7-6(3); 8-6
• Rybakina(18) beat Mladenovic – 6-4; 6-0

Matches to watch Day 2:

• Korda vs De Minaur(15) (12:00)
• Shapovalov(10) vs Kohlschreiber (12:00)
• Evans(22) vs Lopez (12:00)
• Verdasco vs Dimitrov(18) (14:30)
• Hurkacz(14) vs Musetti (14:30)
• Kyrgios vs Humbert(21) (14:45)
• Federer(6) vs Mannarino (15:45)
• Pouille vs Norrie(29) (15:55)
• Struff vs Medvedev(2) (17:15)
• Querrey vs Carreno-Busta(11) (17:25)
• Pliskova(8) vs Zidansek (12:00)
• Samsonova vs Kanepi (13:15)
• Bertens(17) vs Kostyuk (14:10)
• Barty(1) vs Suarez Navarro (14:30)
• Kerber(25) vs Stojanovic (16:00)
• Azarenka(12) vs Kozlova (16:45)
• Vondrousova vs Kontaveit(24) (17:00)
• Cornet vs Andreescu(5) (17:55)
• Fernandez vs Ostapenko (17:55)

Jared

Jared matriculated in 2020 from Wynberg Boys High School in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. His passion for tennis afforded him the opportunity of travelling to Europe. He is a quizmaster and a tennis fantasy league organiser.http://Eishonline.co.za/jftl