Wimblemedia Day 1: “Birds, Umpires and Goodbyes”

Much like Roland Media at the French Open, Wimblemedia is your daily TTI dose of all the entertaining, interesting and fun moments on and off court at Wimbledon.

Serena’s slippery slope

For Serena Williams, the early rounds at the Grand Slams have often been the most nervous ones in the past. Russian qualifier Margarita Gasparyan threw everything at her — particularly in the first set — and forced Williams up her gear very early in the tournament. The scoreline does hide how much of an even level playing field large patches of the encounter was played on.

No salted rimshot please #badumtschhhh

Kyrgios, Ivanovic and the officials

Earlier on the opening day, Ana Ivanovic and Nick Kyrgios both cruised to relatively safe straight-set wins but they did not go without some on court antics involving chair umpires Tamara Vrhovec and Mohamed Lahyani, respectively. Both players debated late or not-so-late calls and were at the losing end of the officials’ decision-making.

Ivanovic made this challenge:

While Kyrgios did this in the first set:

#HardKnockUmplyfe

Djokovic and his birdie

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Top-seed Novak Djokovic also made it through in straight sets against what many had predicted to be a tricky opening round against German Philipp Kohlschreiber. The Serb keep his focus on for the majority of the match — until Rufus the Hawk let a little intruder onto Centre Court.

There were more distractions off court rather than on court..

Grass court experts and grass court “experts”

On the outside courts, Sara Errani and Belinda Bencic were each able to score difficult first round wins. Errani played her compatriot Francesca Schiavone in a tough three-set match, and although the 2010 French Open champion was able to force a third set after being a break down in the second, she made it quite clear what she thought of her game at times:

Bencic, on the other hand, was pitted against perennial Wimbledon dark horse Tsvetana Pironkova in a battle of two players who are very much at home on England’s lawns. The quality throughout the match fluctuated — mainly because Bencic’s three weeks of play began to catch up with her knee — but a mid-match injury left the Bulgarians’s thigh — once again — basically mummified. Despite the pair’s injury woes, the end of the third set proved to be pretty entertaining and even a particularly close challenge didn’t ruin the Swiss’ mood as she battled into round two:

*womp*

It’s raining…double bagels

Venus Williams and Andrea Petkovic served up particularly speedy bagels and it only took them about 40 minutes each to bake a pair of carb-heavy goodness. Whereas the American’s win over countrywoman Madison Brengle was more about the five-time Wimbledon champion’s blistering display, the German played an ostensibly injured Shelby Rogers.

Williams greeted the crowd in style after her victory:

While Petkovic had some fun with the ballboys and the fans alike.

Never change, Petko

The end of the road

Lleyton Hewitt and Jarkko Nieminen contested one of the most emotional matches of the day; both men had announced that this was going to be their last Wimbledon and fate had it that the two veterans would face each other in the first round on Monday.

It wouldn’t be a Hewitt match if it hadn’t gone to five sets full of “C’mon”s, drama and heartache. In the end, the it was the 33-year-old Finn who prevailed in a the final set — ending the 2002 Wimbledon champion’s final singles campaign at the AELTC.

#émotions

What were your highlights of the day? Sound off in the comments!