Wimbledon Day 2 recap: Nadal rides out a scare while other favorites coast
LONDON -- On the second day of Wimbledon, Rafael Nadal survived a challenge from Martin Klizan, while Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova faced little resistance in their openers at the All England Club.
What happened?
Rafael Nadal survived to advance to the second round: I was out by Court 8 watching Madison Keys beat Monica Puig when I heard a roar coming from Centre Court. Everyone craned their necks to see the scoreboard and sure enough, Rafael Nadal had just lost the first set of his opening round match to Martin Klizan. In fact, that was the seventh straight set he'd lost on grass. But Nadal would eventually right the ship and take the next three sets to advance to the second round, where he'll play... Lukas Rosol. The tennis gods do have a sense of humor.
The favorites looked sharp: At the start of the match, Serena Williams took a nasty sliding fall to the grass that seemed to wake her up, and she coasted to a 6-2, 6-1 win over Anna Tatishvili. Maria Sharapova had no problems with British wildcard Samantha Murray, winning 6-1, 6-0. And Italian Paolo Lorenzi spent less time on the grass than his Italian soccer-playing compatriots, losing 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 to Roger Federer.
Eugenie Bouchard was tested and passed: Daniela Hantuchova was a tough first round draw for Bouchard, but the Canadian handled it well, winning 7-5, 7-5. If the draw holds, she could meet Serena in the fourth round.
Young American women marched right into the second round: Madison Keys followed CoCo Vandeweghe's lead and carried her momentum into Wimbledon to earn a good win over Monica Puig. 18-year-old qualifier Victoria Duval knocked off No. 29 Sorana Cirstea for her first Wimbledon win, and Alison Riske did the same to No. 26 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Only Taylor Townsend and Christina McHale fell short. Overall, it was a very good first round for the U.S. women.
WERTHEIM: What if Wimbledon detracted attention from the World Cup?
Photo of the day
Al Bello/Getty Images
Photo of the day: Gael Monfils on the ground edition
GLYN KIRK/AFP/Getty Images
Photo of the day: Gael Monfils in the air edition
GLYN KIRK/AFP/Getty Images
Must-watch video
Press room moment of the day
There was no talk of vampires (sadly) but Andrea Petkovic did show some pity for American soccer, saying she's rooting for a draw against Germany on Thursday because she appreciates the American fighting spirit even if "they don't know what they're really doing."
Well, for example, it was 86 minutes and they have 2-1. You know, ever other team that grew up with soccer or football would just pass the ball back and forth and try to get over with the four minutes. But no, they were like, "Oh, let's try to get another goal in the last four minutes, and running two against four defenders of Portugal, against the goal, losing the ball, and getting the two-all."
I just couldn't -- we in Germany, as we grew up with soccer, for us it's just so not understandable.
