When Aryna Sabalenka was broken as she served for victory in the first round, she allowed herself a wry smile. The world No 1’s mind, no doubt, will have raced straight back to Paris this month, where she led the Russian Diana Shnaider 6-3, 4-1 in their quarter-final only to lose 10 games in a row as she went out.
Any negative thoughts were quickly put out of the Belarusian’s head, though, as she broke the Serbian qualifier Teodora Kostovic in the next game here to win 6-2, 6-3, a solid start as she tries to win Wimbledon for the first time. “For the first match I feel pretty good,” Sabalenka said.
“I’d say I rate myself eight out of 10. She brought a really good fight, stepped it up in the second set and pushed me. Happy I was able to close this match in straight sets.”
A semi-finalist here on each of her past three visits, Sabalenka came with a few doubts after her loss in Paris, a defeat that prompted her to consult her old sports psychologist for the first time in a few years. The best player in the world for much of the past two seasons, her form has dipped ever so slightly of late but a fast start settled any nerves as she raced ahead 4-0. “We all have nerves,” she said. “We just try to put them away. I think with experience I have just become better at dealing with that.”
Kostovic, who had never played a tournament on grass before entering the qualifying event, got herself on the board in the fifth game and showed she has plenty of ability. On her grand slam debut, the 19-year-old punched the air when she broke Sabalenka as she served for the match and then hit an ace to save her first match point before the top seed finished things off.
Tennis can be such a fickle sport. Three weeks ago, Maja Chwalinska was coming off the best two weeks of her life, her old-school mix of speed, spin and trajectory outfoxing opponents as she reached the French Open final. On Monday, the Pole was cruising through her opening-round match against Mananchaya Sawangkaew and was one point from victory when she slipped on the grass.
Initially, it looked like she had avoided injury but she then reached down to attend to her right ankle. She continued to play but was clearly hindered in her movement and fell to a 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 defeat.
“I’m definitely very disappointed,” Chwalinska said. “I was one point from winning a match. It’s a grand slam, so of course every match is very, very important. But yeah, I’ll get through it. It’s tennis, it’s sport, so I will lose many more like this, and I will hopefully win some like that.”
Jessica Pegula, the American No 4 seed and many people’s pick for a run at the title, avoided the fate she suffered 12 months ago as she navigated her way through the first round with a 7-5, 6-3 win against the Czech player Darja Vidmanova.
“I definitely wanted to redeem myself a bit from last year’s exit and then also the early exit at the French,” she said. “I did well in Australia, I’ve done well in the US Open the last few years [so I] wasn’t happy about that. Little extra nerves or pressure today, as well, just with that in mind but then also motivation at the same time.”
The former world No 1 Naomi Osaka and the rising American Iva Jovic were among the others to advance.
