Tuesday, July 1, 2025

First round blues: 2nd seed, 3rd seed, 5th seed, and beloved champion all out of Wimbledon

Today, 3rd seed and Bad Homburg champion Jessica Pegula lost in the first round at Wimbledon, defeated 6-2, 6-3 by Elisabetta Cocciaretto. Some upsets--when you apply reality to them--aren't that surprising; this one was. It took the Italian player, who is ranked number 116 in the world, less than an hour to send Pegula out of the tournament. Cocciaretto's strategic, aggressive play was just too much for Pegula.

But that wasn't all. Pegula's countrywoman, 2nd seed Coco Gauff, also lost in straight sets--to Dayana Yasmstremska, who defeated her 7-6, 6-1. This one, I found not as surprising--Yastremska has looked good lately, playing with more consistency. Yastremska and Gauff had played three times before, and Gauff had won all of those matches, which were played on clay.

Then there was 5th seed Zheng Qinwen, who was defeated 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 by Katerina Siniakova. On Saturday, in anticipation of this match, I wrote that "Zheng is the clear favorite, but Siniakova, an elite doubles player, knows her way around a grass court--and she's Czech." And there you have it.

As dramatic as those upsets were, the event of the day was the first-round defeat of wild card Petra Kvitova, the two-time Wimbledon champion who is retiring from pro tennis at the end of the season. Kvitova, who had decided to retire when she gave birth to her son, changed her mind and returned for one more year. She lost today to 10th seed Emma Navarro, who defeated her 6-3, 6-1. After she match achieved match point, Navarro--instead of celebrating--simply stood and applauded her opponent, as the crowd gave Petra a loud and extended send-off. Meanwhile, in the broadcasting booth, Martina Navratilova was in tears--and so was I. 

As a poet, I tend to avoid writing haikus; I don't know why. But I wrote one for Petra Kvitova several years ago, just as Wimbledon was about to begin, and I wrote another one when she returned to the tour unexpectedly early after having been attacked by a home invader. The perpetrator sliced her precious left hand and left some doctors thinking that her career was over, but she showed up in Paris and won her first round.

Today, I wrote one last haiku for her:

 (Yet Another) Haiku for Petra

Last look at the lawns
A champion walks away
Grass wet with our tears

Yesterday, we saw the 9th seed, Paula Badosa, go out, also. Badosa was defeated 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 by Katie Boulter of Great Britain. And two-time Wimbledon runner-up Ons Jabeur had to retire in her match against Viktoriya Tomova. 15th seed Karolina Muchova, a player who I think could win Wimbledon, also went out yesterday, to Wang Xinyu. This wasn't a surprise. Not only is Muchova playing with a one-handed backhand (she plays two-handed) to compensate for her ongoing wrist problem--Wang recently reached the Berlin final. To get there, she defeated Daria Kasatkina, 2nd seed Coco Gauff, 8th seed Paula Badosa (retired), and Liudmila Samsonova.

There's more: Queen's Club champion Tatjana Maria went out in the first round (def. by Katie Volynets) , as did Nottingham champion McCartney Kessler (def. by Marketa Vondrousova) and Eastbourne champion Maya Joint (def. by Liudmila Samsonova). 

Eastbourne runner-up Alex Eala faced defending champion Barbora Krejcikova and took the first set easily. But then Krejcikova appeared to turn on some type of switch and win the next two sets. In addition to hardly having any match play this season, the defending champion also recently sustained a right thigh injury and had to withdraw from Eastbourne.  

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