‘Brutal’: Tennis stunned by record-breaking carnage as Wimbledon flipped on its head

Seven-time champion Novak Djokovic is through to the second round at Wimbledon, restoring some level of normality after absolute carnage at the All England Club.

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The Serb started his Wimbledon campaign against France’s Alexandre Muller, ranked 41 in the world, and while he won the first set 6-1 he then dropped the second in a tiebreak.

Djokovic then showed a steady hand to comfortably play out the next two sets and win the match, which was far from a guarantee given the big names that had faltered around him.

In fact, on the men’s side, a tournament-record 13 seeded players were eliminated in the first round.

It tied the 2004 Australian Open for the most at a Grand Slam tournament.

There were chaos on the women’s side of the draw too, with 10 seeded players crashing out including French Open champion Coco Gauff.

Gauff crashed out of Wimbledon on a day of significant first-round shocks on Wednesday (AEST) but defending champion Barbora Krejcikova kept her nerve to battle back from a set down.

US second seed Gauff came to the All England Club with high hopes after winning the French Open last month but was beaten 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 by Ukranian world number 42 Dayana Yastremska.

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Other high-profile casualties on day two of the grass-court Grand Slam were women’s third seed Jessica Pegula and fifth seed Zheng Qinwen.

Instead of building on her success on the Paris clay, 21-year-old Gauff endured her earliest Grand Slam exit since another first-round loss at Wimbledon in 2023.

The two-time Grand Slam champion paid the price for an unusually error-strewn display featuring nine double-faults, 29 unforced errors and just six winners.

Earlier, US Open runner-up Pegula suffered a shock defeat against Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto, losing 6-2, 6-3 in just 58 minutes.

Pegula was followed out of the tournament by Olympic champion Zheng, who went down 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 against unheralded Katerina Siniakova.

Men’s third seed Alexander Zverev also bowed out, beaten in five sets by French world number 72 Arthur Rinderknech, giving a bleak assessment of his state of mind after the match.

The German, who reached the Australian Open final earlier this year, suffered his earliest Grand Slam exit since 2019 after a marathon match that started on Tuesday morning.

Afterwards he made surprisingly frank comments, saying he was considering therapy to talk through his mental health issues.

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“It’s funny, I feel very alone out there at times,” he said.

“I struggle mentally. I’ve been saying that since after the Australian Open.”

It was a different story for Krejcikova, who came to Wimbledon with just six matches under her belt this year and was in grave danger after being outplayed by Philippines star Alexandra Eala in the first set.

But the two-time Grand Slam champion regrouped, cut her error count drastically and lost just three more games as she completed a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 win.

Krejcikova has endured a difficult time since defeating Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in the final last year.

The 29-year-old was out of action this season until May after suffering a back injury and she pulled out of last week’s Eastbourne Open before the quarter-finals with a thigh problem.

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“I was in a lot of pain in my back and I didn’t really know how my career was going to go,” she said.

“I’m super happy and super excited that I can be here and that I can play on such a great court.”

Men’s world number one Jannik Sinner brushed aside fellow Italian Luca Nardi on Court One with the minimum of fuss.

Unfazed by the scorching conditions, the three-time Grand Slam champion sealed a 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 win in just one hour and 48 minutes.

Five-time Grand Slam winner Iga Swiatek swatted aside Russia’s Polina Kudermetova 7-5, 6-1.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, handed a wildcard to compete, lost 6-3, 6-1 in an emotional farewell appearance against US 10th seed Emma Navarro.

There were also wins for men’s fourth seed Jack Draper and fifth seed Taylor Fritz.

MEN’S SINGLES SEEDS ELIMINATED IN FIRST ROUND

No.3 Alexander Zverev

No.7 Lorenzo Musetti

No.8 Holger Rune

No.9 Daniil Medvedev

No.16 Francisco Cerundolo

No.18 Ugo Humbert

No.20 Alexei Popyrin

No.24 Stefanos Tsitsipas

No.27 Denis Shapovalov

No.28 Alexander Bublik

No.30 Alex Michelsen

No.31 Tallon Griekspor

No.32 Matteo Berrettini

WOMEN’S SINGLES SEEDS ELIMINATED IN FIRST ROUND

No.2 Coco Gauff

No.3 Jessica Pegula

No.5 Qinwen Zheng

No.9 Paula Badosa

No.15 Karolina Muchova

No.20 Jelana Ostapenko

No.25 Magdalena Frech

No.26 Marta Kostyuk

No.27 Magda Linette

No.32 McCartney Kessler

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