Raonic overcomes 1st-set loss, 2 rain delays to prevail in Wimbledon opener
Environmental activists, weather put pause to play in England for 2nd straight day
Milos Raonic made a successful return to Grand Slam tennis on Wednesday with a 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-1 win over Austria's Dennis Novak in first-round action at Wimbledon in London.
The hard-serving Canadian fired 28 aces in his first match at a tennis major since losing to Novak Djokovic in the round of 16 of the 2021 Australian Open.
Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., the men's 26th seed, also advanced to the second round with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 win over Moldova's Radu Albot, completing a match that had been suspended in the second set in Monday.
Raonic overcame a pair of rain delays and wore down the Austrian qualifier before clinching the match in two hours 38 minutes with a dominant fourth set.
The 32-year-old won the match's last five games and moved on after delivering an ace on his second match point chance.
Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., returned to action last month after missing almost two years with a variety of injuries.
WATCH | Hard-serving Raonic reels off 28 aces in Round 1 victory:
The former world No. 3 and 2016 Wimbledon finalist entered this year's grass-court Grand Slam with an ATP Tour ranking of 849th.
Raonic will next face American 16th seed Tommy Paul. Raonic won the only other meeting between the two at a 2021 hardcourt event in Acapulco, Mexico.
Wednesday promised to be a busy one for Canadians after rain played havoc with the schedule at All England Club, suspending or postponing a host of matches early this week.
Shapovalov's match with Albot resumed after being suspended due to darkness with the Canadian trailing 5-7, 2-2.
WATCH | Rest proves to be best for victorious Shapovalov:
Shapovalov was heard complaining to the chair umpire on Monday, accusing the Moldovan of quickly changing his return position as a distraction tactic.
After a day to cool off, Shapovalov was all business in winning the next three sets. He won the match with his seventh break on 16 chances when Albot double-faulted while facing match point.
Shapovalov will next face France's Gregoire Barrere, who is ranked 49th on the ATP Tour.
In women's action, qualifier Carol Zhao of Richmond Hill was defeated in her Grand Slam main draw debut, falling 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 to Germany's Tamara Korpatsch.
Meanwhile, Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., had her first-round match against Hungary's Anna Bondar pushed to Thursday, when Raonic, Shapovalov and Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., are scheduled to play in the second round.
Fernandez, who hadn't played since winning her first-round match on Monday, is set to take on fifth seed Caroline Garcia of France.
Vancouver's Rebecca Marino did manage to get in some of her first-round match against Irina-Camelia Begu before it was suspended with the Romanian leading 6-2, 2-4.
Only Centre Court and No. 1 Court at the All England Club have roofs.
WATCH | Zhao upended in 3 sets in Grand Slam main draw debut:
Protestors arrested
Grigor Dimitrov was about to serve at Wimbledon when two environmental activists jumped out of the stands at Court 18 and disrupted his match by scattering orange confetti and puzzle pieces on the grass. His initial instinct Wednesday? Get involved and try to stop them.
"But then I also realized," the three-time Grand Slam semifinalist said, "that's not my place to do that."
Instead, security guards hauled away the woman and man wearing T-shirts from Just Stop Oil — an organization that wants the British government to stop new oil, gas and coal projects — and the two were arrested "on suspicion of aggravated trespass and criminal damage," according to the All England Club.
The next contest on that same court, best known as the site of John Isner's 2010 victory over Nicolas Mahut in the longest match in tennis history, was also interrupted by another man from that same environmental group. He was corralled by two security guards and was arrested, too, the club said.
"Obviously it's not pleasant," said Dimitrov, a 32-year-old from Bulgaria who is seeded 21st in the men's bracket and ended up beating Japanese qualifier Sho Shimabukuro 6-1, 6-2, 6-1. "In the end of the day, there is not much you can do. I think everyone in a way did their part as quick as possible."
The All England Club coordinated with London police and other agencies to increase security for this year's tournament, in part as a result of protests at other major sports venues in Britain this year.
"Based on what has happened at other sporting events, and on the advice from our key partners, we have reviewed our security plans, which have now been uplifted for The Championships accordingly," All England Club operations director Michelle Dite said last week.
"We have plans in place to mitigate the risks working in partnership with specialist agencies and the Metropolitan Police and should an incident occur, the appropriate specialist teams will respond," Dite said.
Earlier in June, protesters held up the England cricket team bus briefly during the test against Ireland in London. Activists also have targeted Premier League soccer matches, the Premiership rugby final at Twickenham, and the world snooker championship in Sheffield this year.
Elsewhere:
- On Centre Court, Iga Swiatek eased into the third round with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Sara Sorribes Tormo, hitting 27 winners compared to just three for her opponent.
- Djokovic was up next, and defeated Jordan Thompson of Australia 6-3, 7-6 (4), 7-5 to become the third player in history to reach 350 Grand Slam match wins, joining Roger Federer and Serena Williams.
- Fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas had to win a fifth-set, first-to-10 tiebreaker to get past former U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem, beating the Austrian 3-6, 7-6 (1), 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (10-8) in a match that had been suspended overnight in the second set. Tsitsipas will next face two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray in the second round.
- On No. 1 Court, third-seeded Daniil Medvedev beat British 20-year-old Arthur Fery 7-5, 6-4, 6-3.
- American duo Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe both reached the second round, but in contrasting fashion. The ninth-seeded Fritz came from a set down to beat Yannick Hanfmann of Germany 6-4, 2-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 on No. 2 Court in a match that started Monday, while Tiafoe defeated Yibing Wu in straight sets on No. 3 Court.
- Sixth seed Holger Rune of Denmark, No. 8 Jannik Sinner of Italy, and Paul all won their first-round matches in straight sets to advance.
- Unseeded Guido Pella of Argentina bounced No. 13 Borna Coric of Croatia in five sets.
With files from The Associated Press, Field Level Media
