The world's No. 1 female tennis player, Iga Swiatek, has launched a confident and strong Wimbledon 2023 campaign, aiming for the fifth biggest title of her career.
After withdrawing before the Bad Homburg semi-final due to a fever, Swiatek shared last Saturday that she was more than sure everything would be fine.
"n" is the appropriate word to describe Swiatek's efforts against Zhu Lin, the opponent who missed out on a seed in this year's tournament. Zhu, ranked 34th in the world, had a chance to break in the first game, however, Swiatek not only successfully saved but also won 11 consecutive points to take a 3-0 lead.
Another break took Swiatek completely to the initiative and led 5-0. Saving 2 sets-points, Swiatek still sealed the first set after that with a strong winner.
The match was interrupted due to rain in set 2, but after the roof of the field was re-closed, Swiatek only needed 7 minutes to win 2 games and ended the match with a score of 6-1 and 6-3.
Since the first leg of the Wimbledon defeat in 2019, the Polish tennis player has now won 15 consecutive matches in the opening round of Grand Slams.
Swiatek, who won his third French Open title to 4 Grand Slams in his career, has never passed the 4th round of Wimbledon.
"I feel really confident. I felt I did very well," said the former youth champion at Wimbledon. "I feel really good after Roland Garros. After Roland Garros, I took the time to evaluate what happened.
Last year, it was my second Grand Slam (in the French Open], and I felt overwhelmed. This time I can focus on celebrating and really get back to work with a more peaceful spirit."
Following in the footsteps of Swiatek is American tennis player Jessica Pegula. The world-ranked 4th player experienced a rather hard-fought victory of 6-2, 6-7 (8), 6-3 against his compatriot Lauren Davis.
19th seed Victoria Azarenka also needed 3 sets to beat Yuan Yue, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. Last year, both players did not play at Wimbledon due to the All England Club's ban on Russian and Belarus players.
In the men's singles event, Novak Djokovic's match with Pedro Cachin had to be postponed for nearly 1 and a half hours due to rain. Although the Central yard has a roof, the rain still makes the grass surface wet. Referees had to check many times and Djokovic even used his towel to absorb it.
When the match started, Djokovic did not completely dominate the 68th world player as many people thought. He was even broken in game 3. However, the level is still different when the 36-year-old tennis player won 2 breaks and won 6-3 in set 1.
Set 2 was also 6-3, but Djokvic did not give any chance to break the gap, while he had 2 breaks in the first game and game 9.
Game 3 was more tense, with no tennis player winning the break. The score of 6-6 forced the two players to play a tie-break and here, Djokovic won 4 mini-breaks to win 7-4, ending the match after 2 hours and 14 minutes.
Statistics show that Djokovic's unbeaten time at Wimbledon has lasted up to 2,182 days. Djokovic's next opponent was Jordan Thompson, who eliminated Nakashima by 5 sets.
Andrey Rublev - the 7th seed, also quickly resolved his opponent Max Purcell (6-3, 7-5, 6-4) to enter the second round, meeting Russian compatriot Aslan Karatsev. The Lorenzo Musetti (14th) and Hubert Hurkacz (17) seeds also registered for the second round after early matches.
