01 July,2026 10:00 AM IST | London | Agencies
Poland’s Iga Swiatek returns to USA’s Taylor Townsend during their first-round encounter at Wimbledon on Tuesday. Pic/AFP
Reigning women's champion Swiatek recovered from a second-set blip to battle past Taylor Townsend 6-1, 2-6, 6-3.
Last year, she bounced back after losing her French Open crown by romping to a maiden Wimbledon title but she was far from her best 12 months on against Townsend.
The Pole made 16 unforced errors in a poor second set, but managed to take a tense decider to set up a second-round meeting with former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova on Thursday.
"It's been a season where things haven't gone the way I wanted. I don't think I won any three-set match this year, so happy to do it here as it means a lot to be opening the court here as defending champion," said third seed Swiatek after avoiding slipping to only a second first-round Grand Slam defeat of her career.
Meanwhile, Amanda Anisimova began her bid to go one better than last year (when she lost the final 6-0, 6-0 to Swiatek), cruising to a straight-sets win on Tuesday against Lina Gjorcheska, the first North Macedonian to ever qualify for a Grand Slam.
In the men's draw, Novak Djokovic came through a tense four-set tussle with China's Wu Yibing to get his latest bid for a record 25th Grand Slam title up and running at. The 39-year-old was given a tough first-round examination by big-hitting World No. 12 Wu, eventually winning 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
"It was very challenging for me today. I'm feeling happy but not the freshest I guess. It didn't feel like the first round to be honest," said Djokovic.
Seven
No. of years since Iga Swiatek lost a set in the first round at Wimbledon
Five
No. of times Iga Swiatek has won the deciding set across 13 occasions this season
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