Osaka, Venus ousted in 1st-round upsets
Halep, Pliskova advance • No. 1 Djokovic cruises in straight sets • Dimitrov eliminated, Wawrinka wins
LONDON (Reuters) – World No. 2 Naomi Osaka made a first-round exit from Wimbledon, losing to unseeded Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan in straight sets on Monday.
Putintseva, the No. 39-ranked player in the world, topped No. 2 Osaka 7-6(4), 6-2 on a day of notable upsets.
Osaka had risen to No. 1 in the world after consecutive major titles at last year’s US Open and the Australian Open in January. Later in the day, seven-time major champion Venus Williams lost in straight sets to teenager Cori “Coco” Gauff, 6-4, 6-4.
American Madison Brengle upset No. 16 seed Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-4, while Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova beat No. 10 seed Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus 6-2, 6-4 and No. 29 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia lost 6-3, 6-1 to Croatia’s Ajla Tomljanovic.
Osaka, who came into the match 0-2 against Putintseva, was considered to have a tough draw. The most recent win by Putintseva came 10 days ago at the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham, England.
Since winning the Australian Open in January, Osaka’s best showing in nine tournaments was making the semifinals in Stuttgart.
Asked in her post-match press conference if she has found it difficult to get used to her new level of fame as a global superstar, Osaka, still in her match outfit, asked if she could stop the press conference.
“I feel like I’m about to cry,” she told the media relations representative before getting up and leaving the room.
“I’m sorry, you’ll have to leave that there,” the representative told the media.
Meanwhile, Williams entered the tournament ranked No. 44 and knew she was in for a tough battle. The 15-year-old Gauff has been a rising star on the junior circuit. The Atlanta native who lives in Florida and has trained in France, became the youngest player to qualify for Wimbledon in the Open Era by winning her third qualifying round.
Gauff showed few signs of nerves against five-time Wimbledon champion Williams, one of her idols growing up. Gauff was never broken, holding off a break point in the final game before closing it out to become the youngest woman to win a Wimbledon match since Jennifer Capriati in 1991 (14 years, 90 days).
“Honestly, I don’t really know how to feel,” Gauff told ESPN after the match. “This was the first time I ever cried after a match – or winning, of course. I don’t even know how to explain how I feel.
“I definitely had to tell myself to stay calm. I’ve never played on a court so big. I had to remind myself that the lines on the court are the same size. Everything around it might be bigger, but the lines are the same. And I was just telling myself after every point to stay calm.”
Gauff received words of encouragement at the net from the five-time Wimbledon champion.
“She just told me congratulations, and to keep going,” Gauff said. “I told her thank you for everything she did. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her. And I was just telling her that she’s so inspiring. I always wanted to tell her that... and even though I’ve met her before, now I just had the guts to.”
Meanwhile, Simona Halep shook off an injury early in her opener and won five games in a row in the second set to overcome Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-4, 7-5 in the first match on Court One since the installation of a new roof.
Third seed Karolina Pliskova, who warmed up for Wimbledon by winning the third grass-court title of her career at Eastbourne, fought off a late comeback attempt by China’s Zhu Lin to prevail 6-2, 7-6(4).
On the men’s side, Novak Djokovic has always been a player willing to try anything and anyone to improve his game and he now hopes that the presence of Goran Ivanisevic in his coaching team will help keep him one step ahead of the chasing pack.
The 2001 champion was courtside on Monday when Djokovic began the defense of his Wimbledon title by impressively beating Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 7-5, 6-3.
Having previously worked with Boris Becker and Andre Agassi, Ivanisevic is the third Wimbledon champion he has hooked up with.
“He’s someone I’ve always looked up, he was something of a hero of mine and we’ve been friends for a long time – though usually on the opposite side of the net,” said Djokovic of Ivanisevic.
Djokovic, 32, came into the tournament having decided not to play a grass-court warm-up event and he must have been a little edgy having lost to Kohlschreiber in straight sets on the hard courts of Indian Wells earlier this year.
The 35-year-old German was playing his 15th successive Wimbledon, but in eight of those he had gone out in the first round.
Djokovic made an inauspicious start, double-faulting his first point en route to being broken, but quickly found his feet to reel off the next four games and win the first set 6-3.
The two men then traded heavy blows in crowd-pleasing rallies not often seen these days on the grass but the champion gradually took command to take the second set 7-5 and cruise quickly through the third.
Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov surrendered a two-set lead against Frenchman Corentin Moutet before losing 2-6, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-3, 6-1 in just under three hours.
Fifteenth-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic beat India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran 7-6(1), 6-4, 6-2 and 11th seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia overcame Paolo Lorenzi 6-3, 7-6(2), 7-6(2).
Last year’s runner-up Kevin Anderson, making his 40th major appearance, eased past France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Unseeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez joined him in the next round with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 win over Marcos Giron.
Swiss Stan Wawrinka, who was beaten by Dan Evans in the second round of the Queen’s Club tournament prior to Wimbledon, wasted little time getting into top gear as he powered past qualifier Ruben Bemelmans 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
Wimbledon first-round action (live on Sport5 and Sport5+ from 1:30 p.m.)