Upsets plenty on the first day of Wimbledon 2019

The opening day of Wimbledon in 2019 will be remembered for not who won, but who lost. Among the singles players to be eliminated from the All England Club were four men’s seeds and five women’s seeds. That does not include five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams of the United States, 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and 2014 Wimbledon semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.

The men’s seeded players who lost on Monday were sixth seed Alexander Zverev of Germany (4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5) to Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic; seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece (6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3) to Thomas Fabbiano of Italy; 16th ranked Gael Monfils of France, who retired during his match against Ugo Humbert of France; and 32nd ranked Dusan Lajovic of Serbia, who was beaten 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to rising Polish star Hubert Hurkacz. Dimitrov, meanwhile lost 2-6, 3-6, 7-6, 6-3, 6-1 to Corentin Moutet of France.

The women’s seeded players who lost on Monday were the second seed (and reigning U.S. Open champion and Australian Open champion) Naomi Osaka of Japan, who lost 7-6, 6-2 to Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan; 10th ranked Aryna Sabalenka, who lost 6-2, 6-4 to Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia, 6-2, 6-4; 16th ranked and 2019 French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic, who lost 6-4, 6-4 to Madison Brengle of the United States; 23rd ranked Caroline Garcia of France, who was steamrolled 6-4, 6-0 by Shuai Zang of China; and 29th ranked Daria Kasatkina of Russia, who also only won four games in a 6-3, 6-1 loss to Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia. Even though Sabalenka was seeded 10th and Rybarikova was unseeded, that match was not much of an upset. Rybarikova has an excellent Wimbledon resume as she reached the semifinals in 2017.

In a highly publicized women’s match, 39 year-old Venus Williams of Lynwood, CA was up against 15 year-old Cori “Coco” Gauff of Atlanta, GA. Gauff exemplified outstanding maturity against a player who was 24 years her senior, and came away with a convincing 6-4, 6-4 win. Ostapenko meanwhile lost 6-2, 6-2 to Su-wei Hsieh, the 28th seed from Chinese Taipei.