EMMA RADUCANU AND TWO SURPRISE PACKAGES LEAD BRITISH CHARGE AS FOUR KNOCKED OUT IN FIRST DAY OF WIMBLEDON

Emma Raducanu, Lily Mayazaki and Sonay Kartal flew the flag for Britain on the opening day of Wimbledon as four others dropped out of the competition.

Six of the seven Brits competing on Monday were handed wildcard entries with Kartal the only one who went through all three rounds of qualifying to make the main draw.

The 22-year-old was handed a tricky draw against No 29 seed Sorana Cirstea, but pulled off an incredible upset to knock the Romanian out.

Cirstea took the opening set, but Kartal battled back to force a decider and it was one-way traffic from there.

The British starlet bageled her experienced opponent to progress to the second round.

Heather Watson and Charles Broom lost in straight sets to Green Minnen and Stan Wawrinka respectively.

Arthur Fery put up a huge fight against Daniel Altmaier after twice going a set down before forcing a fifth.

But that proved too much for the 21-year-old was he lost the deciding set 6-1.

Liam Broady was unable to repeat his heroics from the previous two years where he reached the third round with wins over seeded players.

He was up against Botic van De Zandschulp, who has struggled for form this season.

It was seen as an opportunity for Broady to continue his impressive Wimbledon record of late.

However, the British No 6 was unable to find an answer for his opponent as he lost in four sets.

It was a different story entirely for Mayazaki, who incredibly dropped just three games as she thrashed Tamara Korpatsch.

The Japanese-born British tennis star had only ever won once in the main draw of a Grand Slam before and was up against an opponent currently ranked 79th in the world.

But Miyazaki outclassed Korpatsch, who hit just three winners all match and made 26 unforced errors.

It's the first time Miyazaki is through to the second round of Wimbledon and it pushes her close to a new career-best ranking.

She is now set to face No 14 seed Daria Kasatkina in the next round, who defeated Raducanu in Eastbourne last week.

The 2021 US Open champion put in a nervy display on her first return to Wimbledon in two years against lucky loser Renata Zarazua.

Raducanu showed enough to get the job done and make it through to the second round, where she will face doubles specialist Elise Mertens.

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Speaking after her win, Raducanu said: “I’m incredibly happy to be back here.

"I was nervous, I’m sure everyone could see that in my tennis.

"Honestly watching the football last night it was winning ugly - it all counts.

"I think it’s such a buzz in the summer time. I think the tennis, football, F1, it uplifts everyone, myself included and my motivation is to keep coming back here, keep playing and feel that buzz.”

2024-07-01T19:37:33Z dg43tfdfdgfd