British wild card Jan Choinski paid tribute to the home crowd at Wimbledon after they “carried” him through to a second-round meeting with former doubles partner Hubert Hurkacz.

German-born Choinski, the son of an English ballet dancer, changed allegiances in 2019 and rewarded the faith placed in him at the All England Club with an excellent 5-7 7-6 (4) 6-2 6-2 win over world number 56 Dusan Lajovic.

During his main draw debut at the Championships, Choinski fought back from a set down on Court 17 to secure the biggest victory of his career and set up a clash with 2021 Wimbledon semi-finalist Hurkacz, who is Polish like his father.

“I feel absolutely amazing and the crowd was electric at my court,” Choinski said.

“Even though it was one of the smaller courts, I felt carried by the crowd, carried by the whole team, the whole LTA support that was there, my mum especially, and my girlfriend.

“So, yeah, just an amazing day. I’m happy that I could produce some good tennis.”

On the prospect of facing Hurkacz next, Choinski revealed: “We had great contact as juniors.

“We played many doubles tournaments together. As a matter of fact, we won Roehampton, a junior grade one tournament, leading up to Wimbledon in 2014. Then we also played Wimbledon doubles together.

“I’m always great friends with the Polish squad. We practised together a lot. Yeah, he’s done very good for himself. I’m happy to see him where he is right now. I’m thankful for the challenge and thankful to be able to play him in the second round.”

Choinski and world number 18 Hurkacz last partnered up in 2016 and the past seven years have brought a number of challenges for the six-foot-five right-hander.

After he started out playing for Germany, a conversation with Britain’s Davis Cup captain Leon Smith at the IMG academy in 2018 set the wheels in motion for a nationality switch.

Being a British citizen, due to his mother being born in Southampton, Choinski was able to smoothly link up with the LTA.

But surgeries on his hip and shoulder followed, sandwiched by the coronavirus pandemic, and he was ruled out of Wimbledon last year with Covid-19.

His spell on the sidelines saw Choinski drop to 692 in the ATP rankings in August but he never once contemplated walking away from the sport and after impressing at several ITF and Challenger Tour events, he was delighted to justify his place in SW19 with a fine win.

World number 167 Choinski said: “This time last year? I was struggling with mononucleosis and Covid on top of that.

“I was 26 at that time, had almost dropped all my ranking points and came back from two years of being out, two years of being injured, two surgeries.

“But I just never wanted to leave tennis, put tennis by the side. I just thought I’ve got more in myself and I want to show it.

“My attitude is never to really think that’s it. I never doubted it for one second. Never said for one second that I want to stop.

“My love and the passion for the sport is just so big. Also my love for practising, working on myself, getting better, seeing progress day by day.

“After my second surgery, I basically locked myself into National Tennis Centre at the LTA. I got the best support I could have, but we were working so hard.

“We were working six days a week from nine in the morning till six at night. Sometimes I was sleeping there.

“I’d go into the gym or something by myself at eight in the evening and still do another rehab session to try and speed up the whole process of rehab.

“Then we got to a point where I finally was able to compete again after six months or something.

“Yeah, it’s great being here representing Great Britain and being able to produce some good tennis in the first round.”

Venus Williams said she was “killed by the grass” after suffering a nasty fall as her emotional Wimbledon return ended in Centre Court defeat to Elina Svitolina.

The 43-year-old, whose first outing at SW19 came in 1997, was absent from the singles draw last year but was handed a wild card into this year’s tournament.

However, the five-time champion did not make it past the opening afternoon as she went down 6-4 6-3 to the Ukrainian having been injured in the opening moments of the match.

She slipped approaching the net in the third game and fell to the ground, shrieking loudly in agony.

It looked like that may be the end of her afternoon, but she was able to carry on, though admitted she was in so much pain she could not focus on the match.

“Grass is inherently going to be slippery. You’re going to fall at some point. It was just bad luck for me,” she said.

“I started the match perfectly. I was literally killing it, then I got killed by the grass.

“It’s not fun right now. I felt like I was in great form coming into this tournament, and great form in the match.

“It’s all very shocking at the moment. This is sports. I’m hitting the ball well.

“Hopefully I can just figure out what’s happening with me and move forward.

“I think what makes this one hard to process is I’ve had so many injuries. I’ve been missing from tour for quite a while. This is not what I want for myself.

“This kind of fall, I didn’t do anything wrong. I just went for the ball. There’s nothing I can really do about it.

“Those kinds of things are hard to process emotionally, mentally and physically on the court.

“I just couldn’t figure it out today. It was just real challenging. I’ve played through a lot of injuries and won a lot of matches injured.

“It’s almost a specialty of mine. I just couldn’t figure it out today.”

It remains to be seen whether this will be her Wimbledon swansong, as it was for her sister Serena 12 months ago, but time is obviously ticking on one of the all-time great tennis careers.

Williams would not commit on whether she would be fit enough to play at the US Open later this summer.

She added: “I’ve got to figure out my next plan. Right now I’m kind of in shock. I just can’t believe this happened. It’s, like, bizarre. I don’t know. I’m still processing it at the moment.”

Svitolina, who is making a return of her own after missing last year’s tournament following the birth of her first child, proved she is still a top-class player and was not going to let Williams off lightly.

But she admits she was fearing the worst when the veteran was screaming in agony.

“She screamed really loud, I was shaken up,” she said. “I was really shocked in a way, because I thought it was really, really serious.

“So I was really happy for her actually that she could stand up after and didn’t take a medical timeout. She just was checking how the knee is. And then we continue playing.

“I was really happy, because it’s such a horrible injury, the knee injury. Any injury is bad, but, you know, she screamed really loud. So I really got scared.”

Coco Gauff was dumped out of Wimbledon by her fellow American Sofia Kenin in a bruising contest on Court One.

The seventh seed, who made her big breakthrough in SW19 when she got to the fourth round as a 15-year-old in 2019, was a strong contender to challenge for the title this year but was beaten 6-4 4-6 6-2.

This was arguably Kenin’s best performance since she won the Australian Open in 2020 as she was able to out-hit her powerful opponent to incredibly register her first victory in a grand slam match since 2021.

There is a strong rivalry between these two and they went toe-to-toe over two hours and three minutes to leave the crowd enthralled.

An early break for Kenin, who had to come through qualification, was enough for her to take the first set as she both soaked up Gauff’s power and delivered some fine hitting of her own.

Gauff, playing on the court where she famously beat Venus Williams four years ago, hit back and crucially broke at 5-4 in the second set.

She would have been favourite to go on and win it but Kenin was resilient, getting an early break in the decider and then crucially adding a second at 4-2.

There were no problems for her serving it out as she claimed a memorable victory and a place in the second round.

She said in her on-court interview: “I am just super happy, Coco played a tough match, I knew I needed to play my best to win.

“I just tried to stick to my plan and I am just super happy I won before it got dark because I didn’t really feel like finishing it tomorrow to be honest.

“This means a lot, I had to go through qualies, I battled out there. I took this as just another match. I know Coco has had a great year so I am just super proud of myself.”

Wimbledon organisers face concerns over the Centre Court roof after Novak Djokovic’s first-round match against Pedro Cachin was delayed amid farcical scenes.

The four-time defending champion defeated Argentinian debutant Cachin 6-3 6-3 7-6 (4) but the clash was delayed for nearly an hour and a half after the first set because of a damp court despite the roof being deployed.

Djokovic had begun to complain about the surface but officials waited until the end of the set to cover the court.

While play resumed under the roof on Court One, Djokovic and Cachin came out to inspect the court with referee Gerry Armstrong, but it was clear the world number two in particular was not happy.

Playing in his first official match on the surface since last year, it was no surprise that Djokovic, who described trying to move on grass in the early stages of the tournament as “like walking on eggs”, was being extremely cautious.

The Serbian maintained good humour about the situation and re-emerged with a towel, which he proceeded to rub on the court to laughter from the crowd, before members of the ground staff used leaf blowers to try to dry the surface.

But it was not until the skies cleared and the roof was opened again that play was able to resume, rendering the expensive covering redundant.

Djokovic said later: “I was communicating quite a lot out of the court with the supervisor and referee, and the chairman of the club came down as well. They were all a little bit confused because that’s something that they never experienced ever since the roof was installed on the Centre Court.

“Both of us players wanted to come out. We did several times to show to the crowd that we want to play, we want to be there. But it was just too many places on the court which were too slippery and really moist.

“It was very strange that for more than an hour the situation was not changing at all for the better. I think it was a good call from the chair umpire (to carry on). I don’t think it has gotten too much wet from that maybe extra minute and a half or something.

“We were lucky that rain stopped so we could resume play with an open roof. Hopefully they’ll fix it because that’s one of the only two courts that has a roof. If it starts raining, if you can’t play under the roof, that’s a little bit of an issue for the schedule.”

Had it not been for the delay, this would have been pretty much the ideal start to Djokovic’s campaign for a record-equalling 24th grand slam singles title and eighth Wimbledon crown.

Cachin only played his first tour-level match on grass in Majorca last week and was never likely to prove too much of a test.

There was some early rust from Djokovic, who double-faulted to give Cachin a break for 2-1, but he hit straight back and manoeuvred himself into a 5-3 lead.

Djokovic is now on a 29-match winning streak on grass having not lost on the surface since a final defeat at Queen’s Club back in 2018.

He convincingly won the second set but Cachin earned applause from his opponent for his efforts in the third, which he pushed to a tie-break.

Djokovic had won all his tie-breaks at the French Open without making a single unforced error. That streak ended with a double fault here, and he netted a backhand on his first match point, but he took his third chance, winning it 7-4.

Stiffer tests will surely await, perhaps in the second round against Australian grass-court lover Jordan Thompson, but the defending champion is off and running.

Djokovic has not lost on Centre Court since his final defeat to Andy Murray in 2013, and he said: “It was a solid performance. I’ve been in these situations before so hopefully, as the tournament progresses, I’ll raise my level as well.”

Jan Choinski followed compatriots Liam Broady and Jodie Burrage into the second round with a fine victory over Dusan Lajovic on his main draw debut at Wimbledon.

German-born Choinski, who is the son of a British ballet dancer, changed allegiances in 2019 and received a wild card into round one at the All England Club for the first time this year.

Choinski rewarded the faith placed in him with an impressive 5-7 7-6 (4) 6-2 6-2 win against the world number 56.

Warm applause greeted Choinski’s arrival on Court 17, but he was made to wait five minutes before Lajovic arrived.

When the Serbian did turn up, he was able to break world 164 Choinski immediately, only to see it wiped out in similarly quick time.

Lajovic did manage to edge the opener but it failed to deter Choinski.

An even second set went to a tie-breaker and Choinski managed to hold his nerve.

It boosted the confidence of the British number six and, backed on by a growing crowd, he moved two sets up when he claimed the third.

There was no looking back now, with Choinski able to break Lajovic twice more in the fourth set to secure himself a spot in round two after two hours and 35 minutes.

Jodie Burrage feared she would have to give up her tennis career three years ago – but now she is celebrating a first Wimbledon win.

Burrage, 24, contemplated hanging up her racket and going to university instead after undergoing a third ankle operation.

But a 6-1 6-3 win over American Caty McNally – her maiden success at SW19 after consecutive first-round exits – has likely catapulted the British wild card into the top 100 for the first time.

“I’ve dealt with a lot of injuries throughout my career, and a lot of people telling me that I couldn’t get to the top, that I wouldn’t be a player when I was younger,” she said.

“After my third ankle operation, my mind had decided that that was it. That was my tennis career done.

“But I somehow got back on the horse with help from family and friends, and my boyfriend as well, that really helped push through that not-so-nice time.

“To sit here saying I’ve won my first round at Wimbledon, hopefully going to be in the top 100 in two weeks, I was not expecting that, but I’m very happy that it’s happened.”

McNally was clearly hindered by a problem with her right thigh, which was heavily strapped, and Burrage broke her three times as she wrapped up the first set in only 22 minutes.

The world number 67 received treatment at the changeover and instantly improved, forcing a break after Burrage stopped to challenge a call which had clearly hit the baseline.


“I wasn’t happy with myself at all at that call but sometimes stuff like that happens. Unfortunately it was on a break point,” she added.

 

“But I think actually that fired me up a little bit. I was obviously annoyed with myself, but I used it in a positive way. ”

Burrage hit back with a double break, and converted a match point at the sixth time of asking to book a second-round meeting with 11th seed Daria Kasatkina.

Venus Williams suffered a nasty fall as her emotional Wimbledon return ended in Centre Court defeat to Elina Svitolina.

The 43-year-old, whose first outing at SW19 came in 1997, was absent from the singles draw last year but was handed a wild card into this year’s tournament.

However, the five-time champion’s stay did not make it past the opening afternoon as she went down 6-4 6-3 to the Ukrainian having been injured in the opening moments of the match.

It remains to be seen whether this will be her Wimbledon swansong, as it was for her sister Serena 12 months ago, but time is obviously ticking on one of the all-time great tennis careers.

Williams, who only had two warm-up events in the run up to the tournament having previously not played since January, briefly gave hope that she could roll back the years as she broke Svitolina in her first service game.

But a slip as she approached the net in the third game saw her fall to the ground and shriek loudly in agony, and it looked like that might be the end of her return.

She was able to be patched up but, although she proved she still has the power to match anyone with some searing winners, her movement was hampered and Svitolina broke again on a run of four successive games.


That was enough for her to claim the first set and she strengthened her grip on the contest by immediately breaking at the start of the second to leave Williams facing an uphill task.

 

The veteran has overcome some obstacles in her time but this one proved too much.

Svitolina, who is making a return of her own after missing last year’s tournament following the birth of her first child, proved she is still a top-class player as she raced to a 5-1 lead and served for the match at 5-2.

Much to the delight of the Centre Court crowd, though, Williams displayed her fighting spirit as she claimed one break back.

It only delayed the inevitable, though, as the Ukrainian closed it out on Williams’ serve to book her place in the second round.

Liam Broady made French magician Constant Lestienne disappear to reach round two at Wimbledon.

Lestienne is a part-time conjurer who performs at weddings and parties, but was unable to pull a rabbit out of the hat against British wild card Broady.

The 29-year-old from Stockport produced a spellbinding display to win 6-1 6-3 7-5.

Broady broke the world number 74 twice, either side of a brief rain delay, to race away with the first set in 27 minutes.

A pair of winners gave Broady another break and the advantage in the second.

Lestienne’s hopes vanished when Broady edged a nip-and-tuck third set to book his place in the second round in just over two hours.

Jodie Burrage made it third time lucky as she registered her first Wimbledon win by beating American Caty McNally.

British wild card Burrage had suffered first-round exits in the previous two years at SW19.

But the 24-year-old, who reached the final of the Nottingham Open last month, swept aside world number 67 McNally 6-1 6-3 to march into the second round.

Victory also means Burrage has likely broken into the top 100 for the first time.

McNally was clearly hindered by a problem with her right thigh, which was heavily strapped.

Ruthless Burrage broke her three times as she wrapped up the first set in only 22 minutes.

McNally received treatment on her thigh at the changeover and instantly improved, forcing a break after Burrage stopped to challenge a call which had clearly hit the baseline.

But Burrage hit back with a double break, and converted a match point at the sixth time of asking to wrap up victory in an hour and four minutes.

Novak Djokovic eased into the second round of Wimbledon amid farcical scenes on Centre Court.

The four-time defending champion defeated Argentinian debutant Pedro Cachin 6-3 6-3 7-6 (4) but the clash was delayed for nearly an hour and a half after the first set because of a damp court despite the roof being deployed.

Djokovic had begun to complain about the surface but officials waited until the end of the set to cover the court, which proved to be a major error.

While play resumed under the roof on Court One, Djokovic and Cachin came out to inspect the court with referee Gerry Armstrong, but it was clear the world number two in particular was not happy.

Playing in his first official match on the surface since last year, it was no surprise that Djokovic, who described trying to move on grass in the early stages of the tournament as “like walking on eggs”, was being extremely cautious.

The Serbian maintained good humour about the situation and re-emerged with a towel, which he proceeded to rub on the court to laughter from the crowd, before members of the ground staff used leaf blowers to try to dry the surface.

 

But it was not until the skies cleared and the roof was opened again that play was able to resume, rendering the expensive covering redundant.

Had it not been for the delay, this would have been pretty much the ideal start to Djokovic’s campaign for a record-equalling 24th grand slam singles title and eighth Wimbledon crown.

Cachin only played his first tour-level match on grass in Majorca last week and was never likely to prove too much of a test.

There was some early rust from Djokovic, who double-faulted to give Cachin a break for 2-1, but he hit straight back and manoeuvred himself into a 5-3 lead.

Djokovic is on a 28-match winning streak on grass having not lost on the surface since a final defeat at Queen’s Club back in 2018.

He convincingly won the second set but Cachin earned applause from his opponent for his efforts in the third, which he pushed to a tie-break.

Djokovic had won all his tie-breaks at the French Open without making a single unforced error. That streak ended with a double fault here, and he netted a backhand on his first match point, but he took his third chance, winning it 7-4.

Stiffer tests will surely await, perhaps in the second round against Australian grass-court lover Jordan Thompson, but the defending champion is off and running.

Andrey Rublev believes Wimbledon was wrong to ban him and his fellow Russians last year and said the only loser was the event itself.

The All England Club this year overturned its controversial decision to not allow players from Russia and Belarus to compete in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

“I think that, I mean, we were talking, and I think we could find the solution,” said world number seven Rublev after becoming the first man into the second round at this year’s Championships.

“Yeah, if we really want to help or do what is better for tennis and for the people, I think obviously there were better options. Not just to ban. Because in the end, (there) was no difference. They did only worse to themselves.

“So in the end, I think that there were options to do much better for everyone.

“Now we are here, I’m really happy to be back and to compete.”

The ATP and WTA tours subsequently stripped Wimbledon 2022 of ranking points in response to the ban.

This year, Russian and Belarusian players have all signed declarations stating they will not express support for either regime and that they are not receiving any direct or indirect government support.

Rublev, 25, recovered from 2-5 down in the second set on his way to beating Australian Max Purcell 6-3 7-5 6-4.

His victory set up an all-Russian clash with Aslan Karatsev in the second round.

Harriet Dart was gutted she saved her worst for Wimbledon after becoming the first British casualty of this year’s tournament.

Dart was beaten 6-7 (4) 6-0 6-4 by Frenchwoman Diane Parry in a disappointing display on Court 12.

It was a bitter blow considering the 26-year-old’s excellent form in the build-up to her home grand slam, having reached the quarter-finals in Nottingham and Birmingham.

She was not able to produce her best when it mattered on the big stage, though, and she was left with regrets.

“I felt pretty poor out there,” she admitted. “What’s amazing was I had a chance to win playing not great tennis.

“I still feel like I have so much to improve on.

“I’ve had a really good grass-court season. It’s just disappointing that my worst match of the grass-court season came here.

“Naturally being British, you want to play well here.

“I just didn’t really get going. She also made it tricky for me. Credit to her, she played better tennis than me today.”

Dart, who reached the third round here in 2019, was up against it from the start in tricky conditions on Court 12, where the wind was causing issues, as she fell 3-0 down in the opening set.

But she found her feet and levelled at 5-5 after an impressive long rally ended in her firing a superb cross-court backhand winner.

That seemed to turn the tide as Dart went on take the set in a tie-break and the Briton would have been eyeing a straight-sets win.

But the wheels soon came off as Parry raised her level with some heavy forehand hitting and breezed to the second set in just 33 minutes without letting Dart win a game.

The writing was on the wall when Parry broke early in the decider to take a 3-1 lead, but to Dart’s credit she immediately hit back to stay in the match.

However, the world number 96 struck again at 5-4 to clinch her place in the second round and send the first home hope packing.

Dart played the match with strapping on her shoulder, though that played no part in her defeat.

She added: “We’ve just been managing it. It’s not been a serious problem. But, yeah, since Birmingham I’ve had some issues with it. I’ve been fine to play on it.”

Wimbledon fans witnessed farcical scenes on Centre Court as Novak Djokovic and opponent Pedro Cachin waited for the grass to dry in order to resume their match.

Light drizzle saw the court covered and then the roof deployed after Djokovic wrapped up the opening set 6-3 but, unlike on Court One, play did not then resume as scheduled.

Djokovic and Cachin came out to inspect the grass but the defending champion was clearly unhappy with the slipperiness of the surface and they headed back to the locker room.

Djokovic then re-emerged with a towel, which he proceeded to rub on the court to laughter from the crowd, before members of the ground staff used leaf blowers to try to dry the surface.

Play had not resumed by the time the rain stopped and the decision was taken to reopen the Centre Court roof before playing the second set.

Iga Swiatek did not take long to get her Wimbledon campaign off to a winning start as she easily disposed of Zhu Lin.

The world number one is looking to add to the French Open and US Open titles she has won in the last 10 months and made a convincing opening on Court One, winning 6-1 6-3.

The Pole does not have the best pedigree at SW19, having never made it past the fourth round, but signs are positive that this will be the year she has a proper crack at winning the title.


Chinese Zhu – ranked 34th in the world – was no match for her, with a routine victory only slightly delayed by a rain shower that saw the roof on Court One closed.

 

Fourth seed Jessica Pegula also made it through to the second round, but she was made to work hard against her fellow American Lauren Davis.

After comfortably winning the opener, Pegula was pegged back as it went to a decider only for her to regain control and seal a 6-2 6-7 (8) 6-3 victory.

Two-time US Open champion Victoria Azarenka also needed three sets to beat Yuan Yue 6-4 5-7 6-4.

Russian Liudmila Samsonova did not have the best return to Wimbledon as the 15th seed went out 7-6 (1) 7-6 (4) to Ana Bogdan, making her the biggest casualty on day one.

Harriet Dart was the first home player to be knocked out as she lost in three sets to Frenchwoman Diane Parry.

Harriet Dart became the first British casualty at Wimbledon after she lost in three sets to Frenchwoman Diane Parry.

The British number four had an impressive build-up to her home grand slam, reaching the quarter-finals in Nottingham and Birmingham, but fell 6-7 (4) 6-0 6-4 to Parry.

Dart, who reached the third round here in 2019, was up against it from the start in tricky conditions on Court 12, where the wind was causing issues, as she fell 3-0 down in the opening set.

But she found her feet and levelled at 5-5 after an impressive long rally ended in her firing a superb cross-court backhand winner.

That seemed to turn the tide as Dart went on take the set in a tie-break and the Briton would have been eyeing a straight-sets win.

But the wheels soon came off as Parry raised her level with some heavy forehand hitting and breezed to the second set in just 33 minutes without letting Dart win a game.

The writing was on the wall when Parry broke early in the decider to take a 3-1 lead, but to Dart’s credit she immediately hit back to stay in the match.

However, the world number 96 struck again at 5-4 to clinch her place in the second round and send the first home hope packing.

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