Wimbledon 2026: Sinner bleeds, battles and survives; Djokovic wins in 4 sets; multiple seeds tumble on Day 1

There is a version of Wimbledon’s opening day – seeded players tick off routine wins, the grass remains pristine, the tournament eases into its rhythm. This was not that day!

By the time the Centre Court roof closed over Novak Djokovic’s evening match, London had already witnessed a defending champion playing through a bleeding foot, a seven-time champion grinding past a curfew threat, and four seeded men crashing out before the day was done. Wimbledon 2026 introduced itself with chaos.

Sinner’s survival act

If there was one image that defined the day, it was the dark red stain spreading across Jannik Sinner’s white shoe. The World No.1, carrying questions over his fitness after an early French Open exit, was pushed into a five-set battle before recovering to beat  Miomir Kecmanovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-7(8), 6-2, 6-3. It was a contest that swung from comfortable to alarming and back again across nearly four hours.

The most unsettling moment had nothing to do with the scoreline. Sinner battled through a worrying fall during the third set and later appeared to be bleeding through his shoe. “I tried to stay there mentally, trying also to enjoy the moment because it has been an amazing day for me and my team… One fall is a tough one because you can get injured… Grass courts are like this. Especially in the first couple of matches, when the grass is very new, you slip a little more. I got lucky there… I’m very glad nothing happened,” Sinner said afterwards.

The number that will matter more in the history books, though: the win secured his 94th Grand Slam match win and equalled Italy’s record – a milestone that arrived not with dominance, but through the kind of resilience champions are ultimately defined by.

Djokovic’s record intact, but the legs told a different story

Seven-time champion Novak Djokovic also began his Wimbledon campaign with a hard-fought win over China’s Wu Yibing, closing out a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory that stretched deep enough into the evening to bring the Centre Court roof into play.

Djokovic showed his trademark resilience, saving multiple break points in the fourth set and improving to 21-0 in Wimbledon first rounds. It is a streak that now spans more than two decades, but the manner of victory raised its own questions. He didn’t look in the greatest shape, stretching his entire body between points, and it didn’t look like his legs were in sync with his mind. The match could easily have gone the other way, if it wasn’t for Wu gifting the last game with two catastrophic errors, including a fairly routine overhead on match point. It could even have been a Tuesday finish for Djokovic, as the 11 pm curfew would likely have come into play had the Chinese forced a deciding set.

Djokovic now faces Stefanos Tsitsipas, who eased past Hugo Gaston 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 to set up the clash.

The seeds who didn’t survive the day

Wimbledon’s opening day produced a high number of seeded casualties for just the first day of the tournament.

Andrey Rublev’s exit was the most dramatic of them. Rublev became the highest seed to fall after a five-set defeat to Roman Safiullin, who saved two match points in a dramatic deciding-set tie-break – a result that swung entirely on a handful of points at the very end of a marathon contest.

Casper Ruud’s departure was less dramatic but no less significant: Hubert Hurkacz beat Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-2, 7-6, dismantling the Norwegian’s grass-court ambitions in straight sets. 14^th seed Luciano Darderi also fell, beaten by American Ethan Quinn.

The day’s most eye-catching upset, though, belonged to the home draw – a miserable start for the home contingent. British hopes had already taken a major hit before a ball was struck following Jack Draper’s withdrawal from the Championships, and matters only worsened on court as Cameron Norrie suffered a shock five-set defeat to qualifier Michael Zheng. Qualifier Michael Zheng produced the performance of his career, firing 21 aces and staying mentally strong through multiple tie-breaks before sealing it in a match tie-break. Felix Gill, Max Basing and Oliver Tarvet also exited, leaving British tennis with little to celebrate by the close of play.

Elsewhere on the men’s side, Daniil Medvedev and Félix Auger-Aliassime moved into the second round comfortably.

The women’s draw: routine at the top, chaos beneath it

While the marquee names largely delivered exactly what was expected of them, Wimbledon’s women’s draw told its own story of upheaval just beneath the surface.

At the top, control was the theme. Sabalenka won 83 percent of points on her first serve and hit 22 winners to just 11 unforced errors in her win over Teodora Kostovic, needing just 64 minutes to extend her impressive streak of first-round wins at Grand Slam tournaments.

Coco Gauff was even more emphatic. The two-time major champion, who bowed out in the first round at Wimbledon a year ago, dropped just three total games, winning 88% of points behind her first serve and not facing a single break point throughout the match.

Naomi Osaka added her own statement, arriving in an elegant, full-length white kimono inspired by her Japanese culture before backing the look up with a dominant straight-sets win in which she hit 34 winners.

Mirra Andreeva’s path was less straightforward. The young Russian faced a significantly more demanding opening-round test, with the opening set tightly balanced as Linette frequently disrupted baseline rhythm. Andreeva eventually found her range to close it out in straight sets.

Beneath the headline results, the day quietly reshaped sections of the draw. Maja Chwalinska, Leylah Fernandez, Anastasia Potapova and Ann Li were among the seeds eliminated, while Qinwen Zheng and Bianca Andreescu were also among the top names to exit on the opening day.

And then, before a ball was struck in her name, the women’s draw lost one of its most talked-about home contenders entirely. Emma Raducanu’s withdrawal from the tournament with a stress fracture meant British hopes on both sides of the draw took an early hit. Norrie’s exit on the men’s side and Raducanu’s absence on the women’s combined to make it a day British tennis would rather forget.

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