It didn’t take long for the big names to start dropping in Wimbledon. There were a handful of high-profile upsets in the very first round of the men’s and women’s draws.
The women’s side produced the biggest Wimbledon 2019 news of keen interest to SBOBET as two-time Grand Slam winner and World No. 2 Naomi Osaka’s current struggles continued after a disastrous straight-sets defeat.
Meanwhile, five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams crashed out at the hands of 15-year-old qualifier Cori Gauff.
And on the men’s side, a couple of top-10 seeds in Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas also saw his tournament end in surprisingly abrupt fashion.
World No. 2 Naomi Osaka suffers another early exit
Naomi Osaka’s disastrous run of form continued at Wimbledon as she crashed out in the straight sets to first-round opponent Yulia Putintseva.
It was Osaka’s second defeat to Putintseva in a matter of weeks. The 25-year-old Kazakh also knocked Osaka out in the pre-Wimbledon grass-court tournament at Birmingham.
Osaka’s 2019 had started all so promisingly. Fresh off her remarkable victory over Serena Williams to win the 2018 US Open, the 21-year-old then claimed the Australian Open to become the first Asian to reach No. 1 status in either men’s or women’s tennis.
However, Osaka has been unable to regain that sort of form ever since. She has failed to reach even the semi-finals in any of her eight succeeding tournaments and crashed out in the third round at Roland Garros. And now, she has flamed out for the second Grand Slam in a row.
An understandably distraught Osaka said, “I feel like I’m about to cry” as she left mid-way through her post-match press conference.
“There are answers to questions that you guys ask that I still haven’t figured out yet,” said the 21-year-old.
Putintseva will go on to face Viktorija Golubic in the second round.
Venus Williams goes down to 15-year-old Coco Gauff
Venus Williams has had some amazing moments at the grass courts of Wimbledon. But this year, she was on the wrong end of one.
The five-time Wimbledon champion fell in the first round to fellow American Cori “Coco” Grauff, who, at 15 years old, is the youngest qualifier in the post-1968 Open Era. She is also the youngest player to win a singles match at Wimbledon since Jennifer Capriati in 1991.
Gauff, who is a big fan of the Williams sisters, was predictably over the moon after she defied Wimbledon 2019 odds with her amazing victory.
“I literally got my dream draw, so I’m just super happy I was able to pull it out,” Gauff said in her post-match news conference.
“She played amazing, was just super nice. She’s always been nice the couple times I met her.”
For Williams, her first-round exit at Wimbledon was just her third in 22 appearances in the main draw. However, the 39-year-old has now gone out in the first round in four of her last seven Grand Slams.
As for Gauff, she moves on to the second round, where she will face Magdalena Rybarikova, who brought down 10th-seeded Aryna Sabalenka.
Promising top-10 seeds sent packing
A couple of the young guns in the men’s game are now gone as World No. 5 Alexander Zverev and World No. 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas were both upset in the first round.
The 22-year-old World No. 5 suffered his earliest exit at Wimbledon as he lost in the first round to qualifier Jiri Vesely in four sets, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5. Meanwhile, Tsitsipas fell in five sets to Italian Thomas Fabbiano.
Zverev confessed post-match that he has gone through some tough times recently off the court, which likely played a part in his subpar performance.
“Everything outside the court affects you, I won’t get into details now, but the last couple of days have been very rough for me,” said Zverev.
Zverev has not had great success on grass in his career; it’s the lone surface he has yet to win a title from.
As for Tsitsipas, he readily admitted that he was not anywhere close to his best and was surprised he even won a couple of sets.
“He was just better than me today. I think the way I played, it should have been in three [sets], not five,” Tsitsipas said.
“I don’t know how I got to five. I guess with my fighting spirit, somehow I managed to win those two sets. He was just much more solid than me.”
This first-round exit is a rare misstep in what has been a breakout season for Tsitsipas. The 20-year-old made it all the way to the semi-finals of the Australian Open and has also reached the final of three tournaments, with one title.
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