2009 Wimbledon Day 1

Wimbledon is underway with the bottom half of the draw commencing play.  With top-seed Rafael Nadal out, all eyes are looking at Roger Federer.  With so much attention and pressure on him to win his 15th major title, other players are hoping to use this opportunity to rise to the top.

The draw went almost according to plan, only 2 seeded players lost their first-round match.  One of those upset was American James Blake, who was ousted by Andreas Seppi in straight sets.  It is Blake’s 2nd consecutive Grand Slam first-round loss.

Roger Federer started slowly, but had little trouble in his opening match against Yen-hsun Lu.

Other opening day winners were number 4 Novak Djokovic, no. 7 Fernando Verdasco, and no. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

On the women’s side, Serena Williams, Elena Dementieva, Victoria Azarenka, and Maria Sharapova all advanced to the 2nd round.