The 2024 Wimbledon Championships got underway on Monday. Day 1 saw many top players in the women’s game in action, including world No. 2 Coco Gauff and 2021 US Open winner Emma Raducanu. This article recaps which players looked good, who struggled and which contest stood out the most on Day 1.
Wimbledon Day 1 Women’s Recap
Who Looked Good
This year’s French Open runner-up Jasmine Paolini got her Wimbledon campaign started with a victory. She prevailed 7-5 6-3 against the gritty Sara Sorribes Tormo. The Italian was pushed hard in the first set and had to play many long rallies. But her greater firepower was eventually the difference between the two.
Emma Raducanu also survived a tough opening set in her 7-6 6-3 triumph over Renata Zarazua. The Briton had been scheduled to play Ekaterina Alexandrova, but the Russian withdrew due to illness. However, Raducanu was thoroughly tested against Zarazua, whose defense was particularly impressive. The former US Open champion winning the first set tiebreak proved to be a crucial moment.
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka had to work even harder to progress to the next round. Her battle against Diane Parry lived up to its billing as one of the best women’s first round matches. The Japanese star eventually prevailed 6-1 1-6 6-4. Osaka twice trailed by a break in the deciding set. But she held her nerve to retrieve the deficit.
Brenda Fruhvirtova played superbly in the final two sets to overcome her fellow 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva 1-6 6-3 6-2. She barely missed in the sets that she won, and Andreeva’s frustrations eventually got the better of her. Fruhvirtova will be a tough match for anyone with the form she showed in this contest.
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Paula Badosa also played very well to beat last year’s French Open runner-up Karolina Muchova 6-3 6-2. The Czech was below her best, but she is just returning from a long injury, meaning it would be unfair to be critical of her. Instead, Badosa deserves the plaudits for a clinical performance, which included saving all six break points she faced.
Who Looked Bad
Qinwen Zheng suffered the biggest upset of the opening day. This year’s Australian Open runner-up was knocked out 6-4 2-6 4-6 by Lulu Sun, who was making her first appearance in the main draw at Wimbledon. Admittedly, Zheng is not very comfortable on grass and Sun deserves credit for her performance. But this was still a shock result, with Zheng making too many unforced errors throughout the contest.
It was always going to be difficult for Caroline Dolehide to compete against Coco Gauff on Centre Court at Wimbledon. Unfortunately, she never gave herself a chance in her 1-6 2-6 defeat to the US Open champion. Dolehide hit just five winners, but leaked 22 unforced errors in a very uneven performance.
McCartney Kessler may also be disappointed with her display. She fell 1-6 3-6 to Maria Sakkari, who had been struggling for form before the tournament began. Kessler looked out of sorts from the beginning and never came close to making the match competitive.
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Match of the Day
Linda Noskova played some devastating tennis in her win against the 2012 French Open runner-up Sara Errani, but Diana Shnaider’s battle with the 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Karolina Pliskova was the best match on Day 1. All sets were very close, which is not a major surprise, since both players are excellent servers. One break in the third game was enough for Pliskova in the opening set, although she did have to save three break points in the sixth game, before taking the set 6-4.
Pliskova seemed to be on her way to victory after breaking to go 3-2 up in the second set. However, Shnaider then showed the grass-court tennis that saw her win the Bad Homburg Open in the lead up to Wimbledon. She broke twice to take the set 6-4 with some blistering returns and groundstrokes to force the match into a decider.
The final set followed a very similar pattern to the previous one. Pliskova took an early advantage by breaking in the very first game. But once again, she was unable to make it count, and Shnaider broke back in the fourth game. The Czech did show resilience to save two match points at 4-5 down, but it did not matter in the end. Shnaider broke again in the 12th game of the set to seal a dramatic 4-6 6-4 7-5 triumph and make Pliskova the fourth Grand Slam finalist to lose on Day 1.
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports