Canada's Fernandez, Auger-Aliassime, Diallo advance to 2nd round at Wimbledon
Fellow Canadian Branstine falls to world No. 1 Sabalenka in Grand Slam debut
Canada's Leylah Fernandez, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Gabriel Diallo are moving on to the second round at Wimbledon.
Fernandez cruised to a 6-1, 6-3 win over Great Britain's Hannah Klugman in her first-round match Monday.
Fernandez, the 29th seed, dominated with 23 winners to 10 for the 16-year-old Klugman, ranked 573rd in the world.
The 22-year-old from Laval, Que., also converted five of six break point opportunities to win the match in one hour nine minutes. Fernandez has never advanced past the second round at the All England Club.
WATCH l Fernandez tops Klugman in straight sets:
Montreal's Auger-Aliassime rallied back from two sets to one down to defeat Australia's James Duckworth 6-2, 3-6, 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4.
Auger-Aliassime, the 25th seed, hit 69 winners compared to 27 for Duckworth, but the Canadian also committed 54 unforced errors.
The 24-year-old Auger-Aliassime — a Wimbledon quarter-finalist in 2021 — also struck 26 aces and went five for 15 on break point chances in the three-hour 42-minute match.
WATCH l Auger-Aliassime rallies past Duckworth:
Diallo, 23, rolled to victory in his Wimbledon main-draw debut, winning 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 over Germany's Daniel Altmaier.
The Montreal native hit seven aces, 30 winners — to 15 for Altmaier — and capitalized on six of 12 break points.
Diallo boasts a career-high No. 40 ranking after winning his first ATP title at the Libema Open in 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands earlier in June.
WATCH l Diallo defeats Altmaier:
Next up, Fernandez is set to take on Germany's Laura Siegemund in second-round action Wednesday, while Auger-Aliassime is scheduled to face Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff.
Diallo will meet the winner of the match between No. 5 seed Taylor Fritz of the U.S. and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France.
Branstine, who was born in California but represents Canada through family ties in Toronto, fired seven aces and matched Sabalenka with 17 winners, but the Canadian committed 26 unforced errors and was unable to convert her lone breakpoint chance.
Still, Branstine found her rhythm in the second set, and Sabalenka took notice.
"In the first set, she didn't serve great, but in the second, most of her serves were 120mph, which is crazy," Sabalenka said. "I was lucky to break her in one game. Tough match, tough win."
WATCH l Sabalenka ousts Branstine in 1st round:
The 23-year-old Branstine, ranked 194th in the world, earned her spot through last week's qualifying tournament at the All England Club.
Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., the 27th seed, was set to take on Argentina's Mariano Navone on Tuesday.
Alcaraz survives against Fognini
Two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz needed to go through more than 4 1/2 hours of back-and-forth shifts against a much-older and much-less-accomplished Fabio Fognini at Centre Court before emerging with a 7-5, 6-7 (5), 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 victory in the first round on Monday.
The No. 2-seeded Alcaraz had a much tougher time than anyone likely expected before he managed to extend his current winning streak to a career-best 19 matches.
Consider, to begin with, that Alcaraz is 22 and already a five-time Grand Slam champion, including his latest at the French Open three weeks ago.
Consider, too, that Fognini is 38, plans to retire after this season, has never been past the third round at the All England Club in 15 appearances and reached the quarterfinals at any major tournament just once— way back at the 2011 French Open. He also entered Monday ranked 138th and with an 0-6 record in 2025.
Oh, and then there's this: Only twice has the reigning men's champion at Wimbledon been beaten in the first round the following year, Lleyton Hewitt in 2003 and Manuel Santana in 1967.
There were times Monday when Alcaraz appeared to be something less than his best, far from the form he displayed during his epic five-set, 5 1/2-hour comeback victory over No. 1 Jannik Sinner for the championship at Roland-Garros.
He double-faulted nine times. He faced a hard-to-believe 21 break points. He made more unforced errors, 62, than winners, 52.
But at the outset of the fifth — the first time the previous year's male champ was pushed that far in the first round since Roger Federer in 2010 — Alcaraz recalibrated himself.
The Spaniard broke to lead 2-0 in the last set with a backhand volley winner. In the next game, he saved a pair of break points, before the match was paused for more than 10 minutes because a spectator felt ill amid record-breaking high temperatures for Day 1 of Wimbledon.
When they resumed, Alcaraz continued to impose himself and outplay Fognini the rest of the way.
Medvedev stunned by No. 64 Bonzi
Ninth-seeded Daniil Medvedev is out of another Grand Slam tournament in the first round after losing to 64th-ranked Benjamin Bonzi 7-6 (2), 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2 on Monday.
The 2.01-metre (six-foot-six) Russian, a semifinalist at the All England Club the last two years, also exited the French Open in the first round. And that followed a second-round loss at the Australian Open to 19-year-old qualifier Learner Tien.
"For the moment, I'm not that worried," said Medvedev, who is ranked No. 9. "If I finish the year somewhere around [No.] 15 in the world, maybe I will be more worried. For the moment, I am not."
The last time Medvedev lost consecutive Grand Slam first-round matches was in 2017 — at Melbourne Park in his major tournament debut, followed by Roland-Garros.
Medvedev lost in five sets to Cameron Norrie in Paris this year. In 2023, the Russian was seeded No. 2 at Roland-Garros and lost in the first round to Thiago Seyboth Wild, a qualifier who was ranked 172nd at the time.
With files from The Associated Press
