Djokovic Advances While Venus Falls in First Round at Wimbledon

Wimbledon’s defending champion, world number one-ranked Novak Djokovic, defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, to easily win his first round match on Monday. With good defense and accurate groundstrokes, Djokovic won the first set despite being broken in the third game. The number one-seeded Djokovic opened Centre Court in the first round.  He broke Ferrero twice in the second set and two more times in the third set.  Last year, Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal in the final at Wimbledon. In the second round, Djokovic will play either American Ryan Harrison or Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan.

"This is, in my opinion, is the most respected, the most well-known tennis tournament in the world," said Djokovic of Wimbledon. "It is quieter. It feels like a theatre in a way. But the crowd gets into it when they have reason for it. I think they have great knowledge about tennis."

For the first time since 1997, Venus Williams was defeated in the opening round of Wimbledon. The five-time champion lost to Elena Vesnina of Russia 6-1, 6-3.  Before losing in the second round of this year’s French Open, Williams had not played in a Grand Slam tournament since the 2011 U.S. Open. She won her first round match at the Open, but pulled out of the second round when she revealed that she had been diagnosed with the autoimmune disease, Sjogren’s Syndrome. Vesnina won the first five games of the first set.  Williams started to climb back in the second set, but she was broken in the sixth game.  A service winner secured the match for Vesnina.

"I didn’t have the best start. I don’t think that helped," said Venus. "But she’s been on the tour a while, and players like her with so much experience know how to hold onto a game and how to hold serve. I have to give all credit to her. She played very well today. Obviously, I would have liked to win the match, but that didn’t happen."

This was Venus’ 16th straight Wimbledon appearance. She has not lost in the first round since her Wimbledon debut. Up next for Vesnina is the number three seed, Agnieszka Radwanska, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Magdalena Rybarikova.