In the ladies’ draw, four of the top eight seeds were eliminated in the first round, a Wimbledon record. This included Two-Time Champion Petra Kvitova, the pre-tournament favorite. In what may have been the biggest upset (but was certainly the loudest), Maria Sharapova lost to a player who hadn’t played a main draw match on tour all-year. In the gentlemen’s draw, three of the top 10 seeds fell during the first two days of competition. As the second round commences in both singles’ draw, will the upsets continue?
Karolina Pliskova vs. Victoria Azarenka
Centre Court action will open on Day 3 with this blockbuster second round matchup, between two big-swinging women looking to gain some traction on the grass. 2018 has been a relatively quiet year thus far for Pliskova. The highlight of her season actually came on clay, when she went on a 10-match winning streak between Fed Cup, her only title of the year in Stuttgart, and a run to the final in Madrid. But considering Karolina’s talents, she should be contending for Major titles. She hasn’t been passed the quarters at a Grand Slam event in the past year. With Wozniacki and Halep winning their first majors earlier this year, Pliskova is now the best player on tour who is yet to win a Major. Her Major breakthrough may not come at Wimbledon though. Pliskova has spoken about not loving to play on the grass of The All England Club, and is yet to advance farther than the second round here. But there’s no good reason why Pliskova’s game shouldn’t be effective on grass, and she’s taken a grass court title in each of the last two years. I would be surprised if she did not excel at The Championships in the future. Azarenka is the holder of two Major titles, but those came over five years ago. Of course Victoria has missed a considerable amount of the past few seasons due to child birth and the ensuing custody battle that prevented her from traveling. Her first round victory on Monday was actually her first win at a Major since last year’s Wimbledon. Azarenka has gotten to the quarterfinals or better in four of her last eight appearances at SW19, so she’s comfortable playing with grass under her feet. However, Azarenka took a nasty spill in her opening round, which led to a medical timeout to tape up her knee. These two have actually already faced each other twice this year: Azarenka won on a hard court in Miami, but Pliskova prevailed on clay in Madrid. Overall Azarenka has a slight 3-2 edge, though their first meeting 10 years ago was when Pliskova was only a 16-year-old wild card in Prague. The winner of this match could go pretty deep in the draw. The only title threat remaining in this quarter is Venus Williams, who has been less than stellar this year. This one could go either way, but the deciding factor may be just how hampered Azarenka is by her knee.
Caroline Wozniacki vs. Ekaterina Makarova
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Wozniacki, the second seed, has surprisingly never been farther than the fourth round at The Championships. It feels like she’s due for a deeper run here, especially considering she won the title just last week on the grass of Eastbourne for the second time in her career. The hangover from her maiden Major title in Melbourne seems to have subsided, and she has a good draw to the quarters with CoCo Vandeweghe being knocked out on Day 1. Her opponent on Wednesday is also a former Eastbourne champion, though Makarova won that title back in 2010. The flat-hitting lefty was also a quarterfinalist at SW19 in 2014. While she’s a dangerous second round draw, she’s lost six of her last seven singles matches this year. Wozniacki is 7-1 lifetime against Makarova, though Ekaterina won the last time they played. That was in this same round of last year’s US Open, an upset win that was not without controversy. Makarova was up a set and a break in that contest, but appeared near tears after dropping the second set tiebreak. Ekaterina then proceeded to take an almost 10-minute bathroom break, essentially creating her own extended timeout. The momentum completely changed, as Makarova closed out the match 6-1 in the third. Wozniacki will not have forgotten that bitter defeat, and I expect her to step on court motivated to avenge it.
Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Lucie Safarova
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Here we have two former Major finalists struggling to return to those heights. Radwanska was a finalist here in 2012, and made the semifinals twice since that year. This has been the best Major for the former world number two, who was a staple of the top 10 for about a decade. Her record on tour has really suffered in the past 18 months, as she’s battled illness and injury. Radwanska hasn’t won a title since 2016, and is the 32nd seed here as a result. Safarova has also battled illness and injury since her career best result, the 2015 Roland Garros final. She was actually hospitalized with a bacterial infection at the end of 2015, and hasn’t been farther than the fourth round at a Major since. Her ranking has dropped to 66th in the world, and she has a losing singles record on the year. Safarova though is a good grass court player: she made the semis at Wimbledon in 2014. Lucie is 4-1 against Agnieszka, though they haven’t played since 2011, and never on grass. Radwanska saved six match points in her opening round against Romanian Qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse, so she may feel she’s playing with house money. Accordingly, I give her the edge to advance, where she’d face the winner of Wozniacki/Makarova.
Philipp Kohlschreiber vs. Gilles Muller
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These are two veterans who are fully comfortable playing on the lawns of The All England Club. The 34-year-old Kohlschreiber was a quarterfinalist here in 2012, although he’s just 1-5 at SW19 since. The German has played well though quite often in the grass court lead-up events in his home country over the past several seasons. He was involved in what was likely the best match in the first half of 2018, a heartbreaking Davis Cup defeat to David Ferrer in a five-set, nearly five-hour match that decided the tie. Muller is also no stranger to marathon matches. Just last year at Wimbledon, he upset Rafael Nadal 15-13 in the fifth in another almost five-hour affair. The 35-year-old has really struggled since that career highlight. He’s currently ranked 60th in the world, and could drop out of the top 100 with a loss today. That’s a lot of pressure on an 18-year veteran, to face the challenge of building your ranking back up this late in your career. Kohlschreiber is 3-0 in their head-to-head, and I would expect him to keep his perfect record intact today. Muller will need a big serving day to give himself a shot against the more versatile Kohlschreiber. This could easily become a four or five set battle, and both players are fully capable of complicating matters for their opponents in the draw moving forward.
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Jared Donaldson
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Unlike the previous match, this one features two players just starting out in their careers. The 19-year-old Tsitsipas has really come into his own this season, to the point where he’s actually seeded 31st at The Championships. It was in Barcelona in April when he made his mark, ousting three top 20 players on his way to the final. The very next week in Estoril, he backed that up by making the semifinals. Tsitsipas is more comfortable on the clay or hard courts than grass, but so is his 21-year-old opponent. Donaldson spent several years of his youth training on red clay in Buenos Aires. On the terra baute last month in Paris, he played two straight five-set matches. Donaldson cramped heavily in the tenth of those sets against Grigor Dimitrov, even resorting to underhand serving, but still went down in defeat 10-8 in the fifth. Jared won their only career meeting last year in Chengdu, but that was a very tight three-setter. It will be important for the winner to avoid an extended battle here, as they’ll need to be fresh for a likely third round appointment with Stan Wawrinka.
Order of player
(All times BST, seeds in brackets)
CENTRE COURT – SHOW COURT – 13:00 START
1 Karolina Pliskova (CZE) [7] 65 vs Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 68
2 Roger Federer (SUI) [1] 1 vs Lukas Lacko (SVK) 3
3 Viktoriya Tomova (BUL) 102 vs Serena Williams (USA) [25] 104
No.1 COURT – SHOW COURT – 13:00 START
1 Alexandra Dulgheru (ROU) 77 vs Venus Williams (USA) [9] 80
2 Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) 126 vs Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) [2] 128
3 Marin Cilic (CRO) [3] 33 vs Guido Pella (ARG) 36
No.2 COURT – SHOW COURT – 11:30 START
1 John Millman (AUS) 45 vs Milos Raonic (CAN) [13] 48
2 Agnieszka Radwańska (POL) [32] 121 vs Lucie Safarova (CZE) 124
3 Andreas Seppi (ITA) 30 vs Kevin Anderson (RSA) [8] 32
4 Lesia Tsurenko (UKR) 85 vs Barbora Strycova (CZE) [23] 88
No.3 COURT – SHOW COURT – 11:30 START
1 Katie Swan (GBR) 70 vs Mihaela Buzarnescu (ROU) [29] 72
2 Paolo Lorenzi (ITA) 22 vs Gael Monfils (FRA) 23
3 Thomas Fabbiano (ITA) 62 vs Stan Wawrinka (SUI) 63
4 Tatjana Maria (GER) 98 vs Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) 100
COURT 12 – SHOW COURT – 11:30 START
1 Luksika Kumkhum (THA) 109 vs Madison Keys (USA) [10] 112
2 Sam Querrey (USA) [11] 17 vs Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) 19
3 John Isner (USA) [9] 49 vs Ruben Bemelmans (BEL) 52
4 Katerina Siniakova (CZE) 114 vs Ons Jabeur (TUN) 116
COURT 18 – SHOW COURT – 11:30 START
1 Lucas Pouille (FRA) [17] 41 vs Dennis Novak (AUT) 44
2 Kiki Bertens (NED) [20] 73 vs Anna Blinkova (RUS) 76
3 Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) [31] 57 vs Jared Donaldson (USA) 60
COURT 5 – 11:30 START
1 Ana Bogdan (ROU) / Kaitlyn Christian (USA) 43 vs Yingying Duan (CHN) / Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR) 44
2 Taro Daniel (JPN) / Yoshihito Nishioka (JPN) 37 vs Antonio Sancic (CRO) / Andrei Vasilevski (BLR) 38
3 Dominic Inglot (GBR) / Franko Skugor (CRO) [15] 41 vs Marton Fucsovics (HUN) / Mischa Zverev (GER) 42
COURT 6 – 11:30 START
1 Mirza Basic (BIH) / Dusan Lajovic (SRB) 35 vs Fabrice Martin (FRA) / Purav Raja (IND) 36
2 Shuko Aoyama (JPN) / Jennifer Brady (USA) 51 vs Darija Jurak (CRO) / Qiang Wang (CHN) 52
3 Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) / Nicolas Mahut (FRA) [4] 17 vs Roberto Carballes Baena (ESP) / Marco Cecchinato (ITA) 18
4 Gabriela Dabrowski (CAN) / Yifan Xu (CHN) [6] 49 vs Alison Riske (USA) / Olga Savchuk (UKR) 50
COURT 7 – 11:30 START
1 Anett Kontaveit (EST) / Monica Puig (PUR) 39 vs Nicole Melichar (USA) / Kveta Peschke (CZE) [12] 40
2 Matteo Berrettini (ITA) / Maximilian Marterer (GER) 29 vs 4 Roman Jebavy (CZE) / Andres Molteni (ARG) 30
3 Maria Irigoyen (ARG) / Carina Witthoeft (GER) 59 vs Kaia Kanepi (EST) / Andrea Petkovic (GER) 60
4 Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) / Jean-Julien Rojer (NED) [9] 9 vs David Ferrer (ESP) / Marc Lopez (ESP) 10
COURT 8 – 11:30 START
1 Rebecca Peterson (SWE) 94 vs Donna Vekic (CRO) 95
2 Mackenzie McDonald (USA) 38 vs Nicolas Jarry (CHI) 39
3 Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) [25] 25 vs Gilles Muller (LUX) 27
COURT 9 – 11:30 START
1 Andre Begemann (GER) / Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN) 55 vs Pablo Cuevas (URU) / Marcel Granollers (ESP) [11] 56
2 Christina McHale (USA) / Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) 29 vs Naomi Broady (GBR) / Asia Muhammad (USA) 30
3 Katie Boulter (GBR) / Katie Swan (GBR) 23 vs Lucie Hradecka (CZE) / Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE) [14] 24
4 Elise Mertens (BEL) / Demi Schuurs (NED) [8] 33 vs Sorana Cirstea (ROU) / Sara Sorribes Tormo (ESP) 34
COURT 10 – 11:30 START
1 Robin Haase (NED) / Robert Lindstedt (SWE) 39 vs Ivan Dodig (CRO) / Rajeev Ram (USA) [10] 40
2 Sofia Kenin (USA) / Sachia Vickery (USA) 5 vs Nicola Geuer (GER) / Viktorija Golubic (SUI) 6
3 Yulia Putintseva (KAZ) / Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS) 7 vs Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) / Monica Niculescu (ROU) [13] 8
4 Max Mirnyi (BLR) / Philipp Oswald (AUT) [16] 57 vs Julio Peralta (CHI) / Horacio Zeballos (ARG) 58
COURT 11 – 11:30 START
1 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) / Samantha Stosur (AUS) 3 vs Nadiia Kichenok (UKR) / Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) 4
2 Liam Broady (GBR) / Scott Clayton (GBR) 45 vs Frances Tiafoe (USA) / Jackson Withrow (USA) 46
3 Matthew Ebden (AUS) / Taylor Fritz (USA) 13 vs Peter Gojowczyk (GER) / Benoit Paire (FRA) 14
4 Maria Sakkari (GRE) / Donna Vekic (CRO) 53 vs Xinyun Han (CHN) / Luksika Kumkhum (THA) 54
COURT 14 – 11:30 START
1 Sorana Cirstea (ROU) 106 vs Evgeniya Rodina (RUS) 107
2 Adrian Mannarino (FRA) [22] 9 vs Ryan Harrison (USA) 11
3 Julia Goerges (GER) [13] 81 vs Vera Lapko (BLR) 83
4 Jay Clarke (GBR) / Cameron Norrie (GBR) 5 vs Marcelo Arevalo (ESA) / Hans Podlipnik-Castillo (CHI) 6
COURT 15 – 11:30 START
1 Jonathan Erlich (ISR) / Marcin Matkowski (POL) 61 vs Jonathan Eysseric (FRA) / Hugo Nys (FRA) 62
2 Ivo Karlovic (CRO) 5 vs Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) 7
3 Veronika Kudermetova (RUS) / Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) 21 vs Danielle Collins (USA) / Jessica Moore (AUS) 22
COURT 16 – 11:30 START
1 Ken Skupski (GBR) / Neal Skupski (GBR) 11 vs Ilija Bozoljac (SRB) / Damir Dzumhur (BIH) 12
2 Aljaz Bedene (SLO) 53 vs Radu Albot (MDA) 55
3 Belinda Bencic (SUI) / Kateryna Kozlova (UKR) 19 vs Lara Arruabarrena (ESP) / Arantxa Parra Santonja (ESP) 20
COURT 17 – 11:30 START
1 Andrea Petkovic (GER) 90 vs Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) 92
2 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 13 vs Daniil Medvedev (RUS) 15
3 Madison Brengle (USA) 118 vs Camila Giorgi (ITA) 119
4 Alex Bolt (AUS) / Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) 7 vs Raven Klaasen (RSA) / Michael Venus (NZL) [13] 8
MATCHES TO BE ARRANGED
NOT BEFORE 17.00
Raquel Atawo (USA) / Anna-Lena Groenefeld (GER) [11] 25 vs Xenia Knoll (SUI) / Anna Smith (GBR) 26
Luke Bambridge (GBR) / Jonny O’Mara (GBR) 63 vs Lukasz Kubot (POL) / Marcelo Melo (BRA) [2] 64
Ysaline Bonaventure (BEL) / Bibiane Schoofs (NED) 31 vs Hao-Ching Chan (TPE) / Zhaoxuan Yang (CHN) [7] 32
