Home>baseballNews> On the first day of Wimbledon 2025, several top-seeded players were upset, and Alcaraz was pushed to a deciding set. >

On the first day of Wimbledon 2025, several top-seeded players were upset, and Alcaraz was pushed to a deciding set.

Carlos Alcaraz, the Spanish prodigy ranked second globally, struggled to secure his place in the first round of the 2025 Wimbledon men's singles event (total prize fund £53.5 million).

Carlos Alcaraz


On June 30th (local time), at the All England Club in London, Alcaraz won a five-set battle in the first round of the men's singles on the opening day of this year's Wimbledon, defeating Fabio Fognini (ranked 138th, Italy) 3-2 (7-5, 6-7<5-7>, 7-5, 2-6, 6-1).

Attempting to defend his Wimbledon men's singles title for the third consecutive time, Alcaraz endured a grueling 4 hours and 37 minutes to overcome Fognini. Additionally, the stadium temperature reached 32°C that day, setting a new record for the highest temperature on a Wimbledon opening day, surpassing the previous record of 29.3°C set in 2001.

Starting his match at 1:30 PM local time, Alcaraz played a full five sets in the first round, which will require him to carefully manage his stamina for the upcoming matches. His second-round opponent will be Oliver Trivett (ranked 733rd, UK), who qualified through the preliminary rounds.

After the match, Alcaraz embraced Fognini (left).

Alcaraz surged to a 5-0 lead early in the fifth set, turning the decider into a one-sided affair. Statistics show that Alcaraz became the first male defending champion to play a five-set first-round match since Roger Federer (retired, Switzerland) in 2010, marking a 15-year gap.

Having recently maintained a 19-match winning streak, Alcaraz said after the match: "The first match is never easy at any tournament. Especially at Wimbledon, it’s a special event, and I expect to perform better moving forward." The player who troubled Alcaraz that day, Fognini, is a veteran born in 1987, who was ranked as high as 9th in the world in 2019.

In women's singles, world number one Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) defeated Carson Branstine (ranked 194th, Canada) 2-0 (6-1, 7-5) to advance to the second round. Sabalenka was runner-up at both the Australian Open and French Open this year. At Grand Slams, she has never reached the Wimbledon final; her best results at this tournament were semifinal appearances in 2021 and 2023.

In the women's singles first round at Wimbledon, local player Emma Raducanu defeated Xu Mingge 2-0 to reach the second round.

Sabalenka, who missed last year's Wimbledon due to a shoulder injury, will face Marie Bouzkova (ranked 48th, Czech Republic) in the second round. In their head-to-head record, Sabalenka leads 2-1. Emara Dudukanu (ranked 40th, UK) defeated Xu Mingge (ranked 318th, UK) 2-0 (6-3, 6-3) to also advance to the second round.Next,Dudukanuwill face the 2023 champion, Marketa Vondrousova.If victorious, Dudukanu is likely to meet Sabalenka in the third round.

On the first day’s other singles matches, top male players Holger Rune (world No. 8, Denmark), Daniil Medvedev (No. 9, Russia), and top female players Paula Badosa (No. 9, Spain) and Jelena Ostapenko (No. 21, Latvia) were all defeated in the opening round, exiting the tournament early.

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