Wimbledon: Early Rounds

This post is a look at the first two rounds of Wimbledon, which again comes a day late due to rain yesterday which forced a few second round matches into today.  The third round is where the seeded players can first play other seeds and we can take a look back at who has been upset, etc.  It has been a chaotic first two rounds, especially in the bottom halves of each draw, and amazing streak has finally ended.  The seeded men were coming off an amazing French Open where only 5 seeds failed to reach the third round.  At Wimbledon, 13 seeds have been upset or withdrawn (6 in round 1 and 7 in round 2), with 10 of those being top 21 seeds.  The women have seen over half their seeds out, with 8 losing in round 1 and 9 in round 2 for a total of 17.  Nine of losers were top 16 seeds.

As bad as the media has made the upsets and retirements out to be, these scenarios are not totally out of the realm of possibility.  I have been tracking results at majors since 2009, and the 13 men's seeds out in 2 rounds only ties the highest I have seen.  Thirteen men were also eliminated in the first two rounds of the '10 US Open and two other times ('11 and '12 Wimbledon) twelve were sent packing early.  The 17 women's seeds out does is the most since 2009.  Now second on my list is the '09 US Open.  The most surprising thing this tournament is a) the retirements and b) the number of top 16 and even top 8 seeds that are eliminated.

The longstanding record worth mentioning is Roger Federer's consecutive appearances in major quarterfinals, which was halted on Wednesday at 36.  Djokovic is now the active leader with 16 straight (which is remarkable in it's own right) so he would need to make every quarter for the next 5 years to equal Federer's record.

Djokovic is now the only former men's champion in the draw, while Serena and Kvitova remain in the women's draw.  Half of 2012's quarterfinalists have been eliminated is both draws:  Federer, Tsonga, Kohlschreiber, Mayer, Azarenka, Kirilenko, Kerber, and Paszek.  Djokovic, Murray, Ferrer, Youzhny, Serena, Radwanska, Kvitova, and Lisicki have survived to this point.

Seeds Out
3) Roger Federer (SUI) - R2 l. to Stakhovsky
5) Rafael Nadal (ESP) - R1 l. to Darcis
6) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) - R2 ret. vs. Gulbis
10) Marin Cilic (CRO) - w/d prior to R2
11) Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) - R1 l. to Hewitt
14) Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) - R1 l. to Troicki
17) Milos Raonic (CAN) - R2 l. to Sijsling
18) John Isner (USA) - R2 ret. vs. Mannarino
19) Gilles Simon (FRA) - R1 l. to Lopez
21) Sam Querrey (USA) - R1 l. to Tomic
29) Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) - R2 l. to Zemlja
30) Fabio Fognini (ITA) - R1 l. to Melzer
31) Julien Benneteau (FRA) - R2 l. to Verdasco

2) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) - w/d prior to R2
3) Maria Sharapova (RUS) - R2 l. to Larcher de Brito
5) Sara Errani (ITA) - R1 l. to Puig
7) Angelique Kerber (GER) - R2 l. to Kanepi
9) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) - R2 l. to Cetkovska
10) Maria Kirilenko (RUS) - R1 l. to Robson
12) Ana Ivanovic (SRB) - R2 l. to Bouchard
13) Nadia Petrova (RUS) - R1 l. to Ka.Pliskova
16) Jelena Jankovic (SRB) - R2 l. to Dolonc
21) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) - R1 l. to Pironkova
22) Sorana Cirstea (ROU) - R2 l. to Giorgi
24) Shuai Peng (CHN) - R2 l. to Erakovic
26) Varvara Lepchenko (USA) - R1 l. to Birnerova
27) Lucie Safarova (CZE) - R2 l. to Knapp
28) Tamira Paszek (AUT) - R1 l. to Cadantu
30) Mona Barthel (GER) - R2 l. to Keys
31) Romina Oprandi (SUI) - R1 l. to Riske

-Petrova, Pavlyuchenkova, Safarova, and Paszek were seeded at all 3 majors this year and all lost in the first two rounds of each.
-Last year's girls' Wimbledon champion Bouchard is still alive in the ladies draw.

Qualifiers Still Alive
Dustin Brown (GER)
Eva Birnerova (CZE)
Petra Cetkovska (CZE)
Michelle Larcher de Brito (POR)

American Play
Men: 5-11, all eliminated.  This may be a new low for American men's tennis on a surface where they have always excelled, even the lower ranked guys.  It is the first time since 1912 that no American has reached the third round at Wimbledon.  Isner, Blake, Ram, Reynolds (Q), and Kudla (Q) won their first round matches but were then quickly dismissed with Isner pulled out 2 games into his match.  Querrey and Harrison lost 5-setters to Tomic and Chardy.  No real shame is those losses but you still need to do better.  Other first round losers were Russell, Johnson, Odesnik (Q), and Kuznetsov (Q).  And these were with decent draws for most.  Things can only get better, one would think, heading to American hard courts, and the US Open, but these results are a real downer, especially after the promise shown at the French Open.

Women: 9-10 through round 2 with Serena, Stephens, Keys, and Riske still alive in the draw and McHale won one match.  There were 9 first round losers:  Lepchenko, Hampton, Mattek-Sands, Davis, Oudin, Burdette, Glatch, Vandeweghe, and King (L).  While these results are not as amazing as the last couple US Opens and especially the recent French Open, they aren't horrible, especially when you consider the draws.  Six American women opened against seeds and went just 1-5 where at the French they pulled several upsets.  There were two All-American matchups:  Stephens vs. Hampton and McHale vs. Glatch.  The four players still standing is good to see, with Stephens and Keys as the most advanced of the younger players, and Riske finally doing damage at big Wimbledon after so many successful runs at little Birmingham over the past 4 years is nice, especially since she was awarded a wildcard.  So overall I would have like to a little better results in the first round, but I'll live with this.  Now if these mediocre performance become a trend, then it will be a little disappointing.  And also of note again here is the young Puerto Rican Puig, who has advanced to the third round at a second consecutive major with a win over Errani.

With that, enjoy the next few days of tennis and I'll tell all about the quarterfinalists next Monday, which will certainly feature some different names this tournament.