It’s the grand opening of Wimbledon this Monday. The third round of the season’s Grand Slam, The Championships, begins with a bang with many headliners and four Belgians on the menu for this first day.
The menu will be very generous for our compatriots. At 12:00, Greet Minnen entered into action against the local Heather Watson. The Belgian started her tournament perfectly by winning the first set 7-5. Minnen nevertheless gave herself a scare since she was leading 4-1.
The second set was more closely fought but Minnen broke his opponent for the first time at 5-4 to validate his ticket for the second round.
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A little later, Belgian number one Elise Mertens – who has just retired in Eastbourne – faces Japanese Nao Hibino. It all started very badly for the Limburger who lost the first set 6-2. The Belgian then recovered well and pocketed the next two sets: 6-2, 6-4.
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For his part, Zizou Bergs faced the Frenchman Arthur Cazaux at 2:30 p.m. But the Belgian number one had trouble getting into his match. He quickly lost the first set 6-1. The Belgian number one raised his level in the second set but he gave up his serve at the worst possible moment, at four games all. The Frenchman therefore wrapped up the set six games to four. Far from being discouraged, the Belgian got going again in the third set, which he won in the tie-break. The same story in the fourth set, which Bergs won in the tie-break.
The fifth set was full of suspense. Having been largely led in the tie-break of the last, he came back to 8-8, before losing.
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In the rest of the men’s draw, Carlos Alcaraz (seeded No. 3) had a tough time against Mark Lajal but the defending champion still won in three sets (7/6, 7/5, 6/2). At the same time, Daniil Medvedev had a great time against Aleksandar Kovacevic on Court No. 1. A little later in the evening, world number one Jannik Sinner qualified by dropping a set to Yannick Hanfmann.
In the women’s draw, Coco Gauff (No. 2) will be on court this afternoon against Caroline Dolehide. Frenchwoman Varvara Gracheva was the first to qualify for the second round after her victory against Ukrainian Tsurenko. Maria Sakkari (WTA 9) and Lin Zhu also played in the first round.
On the other hand, Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka withdrew from her first round match.
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