Wimbledon: Early Rounds

The first two rounds at Wimbledon are very near complete, with the rain delaying 5 singles matches until tomorrow.  However, I'm going to go ahead and get this post out there.  A number of seeds have been eliminated in both draws but hasn't been many shockers as there was last year and at the first two majors this year.  Only two top 10 seeds have been eliminated (Jankovic), which means that Nadal has survived, which could be the biggest shocker.  I do say that slightly tongue and cheek but given his recent results I thought Klizan or Rosol could beat him.

One news item is that is seems like some younger players are finally starting to break through.  In simultaneous matches Kyrgios and Vesely upset two seeded Frenchmen in 5 setters (Gasquet and Monfils).  Kyrgios even saved 9 match points, and now they'll in the third round.  And on the women's side, the two players born in '97 who split the junior majors in '13 are both in the third round: Bencic and Konjuh.  We'll continue to watch and see if these players continue to rise, but this is an encouraging sign.

The Americans mostly discouraged in the first round of the tournament, but the women fought back to have a nice second round.  Querrey once again failed in a 5-setter, although his recent form gives some reason to hope the worst is over.

American Men (5-9)
Still alive: 9-Isner
Won one: Querrey, Sock, q-Kudla
First round losers: Klahn, Johnson, Young, Russell, q-Kuznetsov, q-Harrison
Seeds beaten: none

This was a definite step back after the nice French Open, especially when you consider the draws.  You would think on grass some of these guys could have had more success.  Kuznetsov did very nearly take out Fognini and Johnson took a set from Bautista Agut but on grass the Yanks should have done better in my opinion.  Russell and Young had matches against journeymen (Reister and Becker) and lost.

American Women (13-7)
Still alive: 1-Serena, 30-Venus, Keys, Riske, Davis, q-Duval (still to play R2)
Won one: Lepchenko, Vandeweghe, q-Duval
First round losers: 18-Stephens, King, McHale, Tatishvili, w-Townsend
Seeds beaten: 12-Pennetta (Davis), 26-Pavlyuchenkova (Riske), 27-Muguruza (Vandeweghe), 29-Cirstea (Duval), 31-Koukalova (Keys)

Well, looking back that wasn't a bad as I remember in the first round.  In fact, it is pretty good considering the number of seeds they played and beat.  The Stephens and McHale losses were discouraging, but there are 6 Americans still left in the draw.  (Duval plays Bencic still in R2.)  Stephens' run of 6 straight fourth rounds at majors in over as is Vandeweghe's long winning streak but I wonder if she was fatigued some after all those matches last week.

Overall Seeds Out
Men R1: 18-Verdasco, 25-Seppi, 28-Garcia-Lopez, 29-Karlovic, 31-Pospisil, 32-Tursunov
Men R2: 7-Ferrer, 12-Gulbis, 13-Gasquet, 17-Youzhny, 22-Kohlschreiber, 24-Monfils
Women R1: 7-Jankovic, 14-Errani, 17-Stosur, 18-Stephens, 21-Vinci, 26-Pavlyuchenkova, 27-Muguruza, 28-Kuznetsova, 29-Cirstea
Women R2: 8-Azarenka, 12-Pennetta, 15-Suarez Navarro, 31-Koukalova

So 12 men's seeds are out and 14 women's seeds are out.  Those are both high numbers for the men but only 8 top 16 seeds have been eliminated, most of the damage was done to the lower seeds.  Eight men were sent packing in the first two rounds last month at the French Open, and actually this number could increase with Janowicz, Lopez, and Granollers yet to finish.  Halep is the only seeded woman yet to finish the second round.

Unseeded Players Remaining
Men Direct Entry: Gilles Simon (FRA), Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR), Jeremy Chardy (FRA), Leonardo Mayer (ARG), Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS), Denis Istomin (UZB), Lukasz Kubot (POL), Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ)
Men Qualifier: Jimmy Wang (TPE)
Men Lucky Loser: Simone Bolelli (ITA)
Men Wildcard: Nick Kyrgios (AUS), Jiri Vesely (CZE)
Second Round Still to Finish: Q) Ante Pavic (CRO), Lleyton Hewitt (AUS), Santiago Giraldo (COL)
Women Direct Entry: Alison Riske (USA), Zarina Diyas (KAZ), Madison Keys (USA), Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ), Bojana Jovanovski (SRB), Caroline Garcia (FRA), Shuai Peng (CHN), Lauren Davis (USA), Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (CZE)
Women Qualifier: Tereza Smitkova (CZE), Michelle Larcher de Brito (POR), Ana Konjuh (CRO)
Women Wildcard: Vera Zvonareva (KAZ)
Second Round Still to Finish: Lesia Tsurenko (UKR), Belinda Bencic (SUI), Q) Victoria Duval (USA)

-Ferrer's loss snaps a streak of 10 consecutive major QF berths
-Quite a bit of young blood among those names
-There are no guaranteed unseeded quarterfinalists yet
-Former boys FO champs still in the draw are Federer, Chardy, Dimitrov, Kuznetsov (young Aussie Saville won one match)
-Former girls AO champs still in the draw are Flipkens, A.Radwanska, Wozniacki, Bouchard, Bencic
-None of the former champions (men's Big 4, Williams sisters, Sharapova, Kvitova) have been eliminated
-Two quarterfinalists from last year have been knocked out of each draw: Verdasco, Del Potro (injured), Stephens, and Kanepi.  (Janowicz still to finish.)

With few of the big names out, the predictions can pretty much remain as they were.  The longer Nadal remains in this tournament, the stronger he becomes and could begin to be a contender in my mind.  Federer and Murray have looked amazing on the men's side, and Serena and Sharapova are both taking of business on the women's.  Still several grass courters around, too.

A couple other quick notes:
-Isner won a tiebreak today 19-17 over Nieminen, served 36 aces and never faced a break point, winning 7-6(19), 7-6(3), 7-5
-Former finalist Zvonareva barely survived local favorite Tara Moore 9-7 in the 3rd over 2 days, but she came back today to reach the third round.  She hasn't won back-to-back matches since back her injury sidelined her
-Tsonga finished off Querrey this morning 14-12 in the 5th in a match that was paused 9-9 last night.  In the first 4 sets there was only 1 break of serve each.
-Ka.Pliskova beat Knapp in R1 10-8 in the 3rd. Kr.Pliskova lost to Shvedova 8-6 in the 3rd, and then in doubles they lost together 11-9 in the 3rd.