Zverev and Tsitsipas out of Wimbledon, Djokovic cruises through

Peter Thompson

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Zverev and Tsitsipas out of Wimbledon, Djokovic cruises through image

Novak Djokovic cruised into the second round of Wimbledon with a straight-sets defeat of Philipp Kohlschreiber, but Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas fell at the first hurdle on day one.

Djokovic started the defence of his title with a 6-3 7-5 6-3 victory over German Kohlschreiber on Centre Court.

Sixth seed Zverev suffered more major misery as qualifier Jiri Vesely came from a set down to win 4-6 6-3 6-2 7-5 at the All England Club on Monday.

Thomas Fabbiano claimed the scalp of Austrlian Open semi-finalist Tsitsipas, the 89-ranked Italian triumphing 6-4 3-6 6-4 6-7 (8-10) 6-3.

Kevin Anderson, runner-up last year, got past Pierre-Hugues Herbert in straight sets, while the promising Felix Auger-Aliassime won got his first grand slam match win in an all-Canadian battle with Vasek Pospisil.

Ivo Karlovic, the oldest man to play in the singles since Ken Rosewall in1975 at the age of 40, saw off Andrea Arnaboldi to move into round two at SW19, but 16th seed Gael Monfils bowed out due to injury when trailing fellow Frenchman Ugo Humbert in the final set.

 

DJOKOVIC OVERCOMES NERVES TO SAIL THROUGH

World number one Djokovic said he was feeling the nerves, but it was not evident as he outclassed Kohlschreiber.

The top seed struck 37 winners and won 84 per cent of points on his first serve to set up an encounter with Denis Kudla in the second round.

Djokovic said: "I'm a human being, like anybody else. I do feel nerves. At the same time, I had a great, quality tennis player across the net who is very dangerous.

"I lost to him earlier in year [at Indian Wells]. The first match on grass, you slip a few times, still kind of finding the right position on the court, the right place. But I'm overall satisfied."

 

TSITSIPAS: I DESERVED STRAIGHT-SETS LOSS

Seventh seed Tsitsipas offered a brutally honest verdict after Fabbiano sent him crashing out.

"He was just better than me today. I think the way I played, it should have been in three [sets], not five," said the 20-year-old Greek.

"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."

 

ZVEREV SUFFERING LACK OF CONFIDENCE

There was also a frank assessment from Zverev after he was beaten in the opening round of the grass-court major for the first time.

"One or two things don't go my way, and everything kind of a little bit falls apart," the world number five said. "It was kind of a typical grand slam match for me.

"I'm not very high on confidence right now. When I get to the important moments, I had, what, five, six break points in the fourth set alone? Can't take any of those.

"I had a 0-40, a 15-40. I'm down one break point myself and he takes it immediately, where I miss an easy volley. I didn't lose this match on tennis. It's just my confidence is below zero right now."

Peter Thompson