Kei Nishikori and Milos Raonic advanced to the second round by beating Sam Groth and Pablo Carreno Busta respectively in three sets. Ivo Karlovic won the all-Croatian match against his younger compatriot Borna Coric in three sets.
Kei Nishikori broke six times to beat Sam Groth 6-4 6-3 7-5. Nishikori will face either Julien Benneteau or Ilya Marchenko. Nishikori took a medical time-out after winning the second set to love to receive treatment to his torso. The Japanese player was forced to withdraw from the Gerry Weber Open in Halle earlier this month.
In the fourth game of the opening set Nishikori saved three break points at 1-2. Nishikori broke serve in the fifth game and never looked back to win the win the first set 6-4. Nishikori started the second set with a break in the first game as Groth made a double fault. The Australian player broke straight back in the second game. Nishikori got another break in the fifth game for 3-2 en route to winning the second set 6-3.
Nishikori broke serve in the second game to open up a 2-0 lead. Groth broke back in the next game for 2-1. Groth earned two break points at 5-5 but Nishikori saved them before breaking serve in the 12th game to take the third set 7-5
Milos Raonic beat Pablo Carreno Busta 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 6-4. The Canadian star fired 27 aces and faced two break points in the third game of the second set, which he faced with his powerful serve.
Carreno Busta fended off the only break points he faced in the first service game of the opening set. In the tie.break Raonic fought back from 3-4 by winning the final four points to win the first set. The first set went on serve until 5-4 for Raonic in the tie-break when Carreno Busta made a forehand error and a double fault.
Raonic got two consecutive breaks in the third and fifth games of the second set to wrap uo the second set 6-2. He got one more break in the third game of the third set. Raonic did not convert the first two match points but wrapped up the match in the next game on his seventh match point.
Raonic will take on Andreas Seppi, who beat Guillermi Garcia Lopez 6-2 6-4 6-0. Raonic won his only head-to-head match against Seppi in in the 2013 Davis Cup.
Thirty-seven year-old Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic beat his 19-year-old compatriot Borna Coric 7-6 (10-8) 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 in one of the most interesting matches of the first day of the Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament at the famous All-England Club. The Croatian expereienced player hit 26 aces and faced only one break point in the eighth game of the second set.
There were no break point chances until the tie-break of the first set. Coric got a mini-break on the first point of the tie-break to build up a 4-2 lead but Karlovic fought back by winning three consecutive points to take a 5-4 lead. There were no mini-breaks in the next 10 points until 9-8. Coric did not convert two set points before dropping a point on his serve to lose the tie-break 10-8.
Both players earned their first break points in the seventh and eighth games of the second set but failed to convert them. The second set came down to the tie-break. Coric got two mini-breaks to build up a 6-2 lead to earn four set points. Karlovic bounced back by winning four consecutive points to draw level to 6-6 before fending off another set point. Coric did not convert five set points before Karlovic got a decisive mini-break to convert his first set point for 9-7. Karlovic clinched his only break of the match in the 10th game to close out the third set 6-4. Karlovic, who reached the quarter final in 2009, will face Lukas Lacko in the second round.
Another Croatian player Marin Cilic made a good start to his Wimbledon campaign with a 6-3 7-5 6-3 win. The 2014 US Open champion fired 18 aces and won 89 percent of his first serve points to reach the second round at Wimbledon for the seventh time in his career.
Sam Querrey fought back from two sets down to overcome a marathon match against Lukas Rosol 6-7 (6-8) 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-4 12-10 in a marathon match.
Adrian Mannarino beat British rising star Kyle Edmund 6-2 7-5 6-4. The Frenchman converted seven of his ten break points. Both players struggled on serve in the first set and faced break points in five consecutive games. Mannarino got three consecutive breaks to win the first set 6-2. The Frenchman clinched his fourth consecutive break at the start of the second set. Edmund broke back to draw level to 5-5 as Mannarino was sreing for the second set. Mannarino broke again in the 11th game before serving out for the set in the next game. Both players traded breaks at the start of the third set. The set went on serve until the 9th game when Mannarino got his second break of the third set. Mannarino served out to love to clinch the match.
Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky beat Yoshihito Nishioka 6-3 6-4 6-4 to clinch his biggest win at Wimbledon since 2013 when he beat Roger Federer. Pierre- Hugues Herbert overcame Phillip Kohlschreiber in four sets 7-5 6-3 3-6 6-3.