Wimbledon: Thoughts from Week One

The Bad

Jun 30, 2015; London, United Kingdom; Rafael Nadal (ESP) waves to the crowd as he leaves the court after recording match point in his match against Thomaz Bellucci (BRA) on day two of The Championships Wimbledon at the AELTC. Mandatory Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports

Women’s Disappointment of Week One

With 6 of the top ten women’s seeds falling in the first week, there is no shortage of candidates for the most disappointing loss.

Eugenie Bouchard and Simona Halep both had surprising losses in the first round. Both performances were evidently bumps on the road for the young WTA stars, but Bouchard was suffering from a serious injury, and Halep at least put up more of a fight in her loss than in her recent grand slam losses.

Carla Suarez Navarro also fell in the first round via a shockingly one-sided loss of 6-2, 6-0. But her opponent, last year’s girl’s champion Jelena Ostapenko was outstanding, hitting just too many winners for the Spaniard to get into the match.

Angelique Kerber should have featured in the championship match next week, but as per the last slide, there was no shame in losing the best match of the tournament.

Czech Karolina Pliskova should have travelled further than the second round after her finals appearance in Birmingham two weeks ago, but Coco Vandeweghe will always be a tough opponent on grass.

Her compatriot Petra Kvitova’s loss will be a bit tougher to swallow, given she was the defending champion. And while she definitely did not play her best tennis in her loss, Jankovic’s strong performance is also responsible for Kvitova’s earliest loss here since 2009.

Sam Stosur also promised a strong showing at this year’s Wimbledon by making the third round, before falling unceremoniously 6-2, 6-0 to Vandeweghe. As shocking as her performance was, Stosur is prone to off-days and she really wasn’t expected to achieve much at this year’s Wimbledon

The biggest flop of the first week, though, was Sabine Lisicki. A loss to Timea Bacsinszky isn’t anything to scoff at. But letting Bacsinszky play solid, but not remarkable tennis and still being demolished is dreadful, especially for a former Wimbledon finalist. Lisicki was expected to do some serious damage at this year’s tournament after some impressive showings this year. Instead she was forced to take a round of 32 loss – her earliest since 2008 – knowing that she was capable of so much more.

Men’s Disappointment of Week One

While Nick Kyrgios is having a strong tournament, a few Australian names really should have had better showings this week. Thanasi Kokkinakis lost in three sets in the first round. Granted, he’s young and will have many more chances to perform here, but with a game as well-suited to the grass as his and an affinity for pushing matches the extra distance, Kokkinakis really should have made more of an impression.

Likewise, Australian journeyman John Millman was up 2 sets to 0 against Marcos Baghdatis. He then proceeded to play uninspired tennis on his way to a 5 set loss. A win would have firmly planted him in the top 100. Instead, he’s hanging onto a 90-something ranking by his teeth.

More disappointments: An astonishingly bad Jack Sock falling in the first round, excellent grass court player Feliciano Lopez losing in the second, and Milos Raonic falling in four to Nick Kyrgios.

The most frustrating losses, however, were two men struggling for form this year. What more needs to be said about Rafael Nadal? He came into the tournament having won in Stuttgart, and looked set to challenge for the title. Dustin Brown did play a great match in the second round, but Rafa really should have been better than he was. It appears that the Spaniard’s chances of winning Wimbledon again are decreasing with each early exit.

And then there’s Grigor Dimitrov. Who knows what’s going on with the Bulgarian? Last year he was pushing Novak Djokovic in what seemed like his first of many Wimbledon semifinals. This year he fell in the third round. He should have been competing for grand slam titles by now. At the moment, he’s fallen to, at least, No. 15 in the rankings and will struggle to maintain a top 16 seed for the US Open.

Bonus: Disappointing Withdrawal of Week One

Poor Kei. A semifinal run in Halle two weeks ago and a five set match against Simone Bolelli were just too much for the fragile Japanese youngster. He was gifted a relatively easy path to the quarterfinals, with only Marin Cilic presenting a real challenge. Instead of reaching his fourth consecutive grand slam quarterfinal, he’ll take a second round appearance and a calf injury. Hopefully he recovers soon before defending his points at the US Open.

Next: The Shocking (Women's Favourites)