Stefanos Tsitsipas was widely considered a leading contender outside of the Big Three entering Wimbledon. But the reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion was stunned in the opening round against Italian Thomas Fabbiano, against whom he lost only seven games at The Championships last year.

Tsitsipas wasn’t totally surprised, though. He almost saw it coming based on how his practices were going leading into the season’s third Grand Slam.

“I was so frustrated knowing already how things are going to be, based on my feelings on the court, how I felt. I was very mad with myself yesterday,” Tsitsipas said. “I already felt that I was actually not playing very well yesterday in practice, so I was kind of curious to see how this is going to change today. But it didn’t.”

Tsitsipas admitted that he was struggling with his service return, synchronising his footwork and coordination to put himself in the proper position, and the coordination also hindered him on his serve. He was broken five times.

It seemed Tsitsipas might turn the tide after saving two match points in a fourth-set tie-break and then earning three break points in his first return game of the decider, but the World No. 6 could not convert. He took advantage of just two of his 10 break chances.

“It felt like I was lost, going for too much or going for nothing,” Tsitsipas said. “There was no balance in what I was doing.”

Tsitsipas, who won titles in Marseille and Estoril this year, reached the Madrid championship match and made the Australian Open semi-finals, was quick to credit his 30-year-old opponent. Last year, Fabbiano was unable to get anything going against the #NextGenATP Greek in the third round at Wimbledon. This time, he struck 45 winners en route to his first Top 10 victory.

“He was just playing better. I wouldn’t actually deserve the victory today even if I would have won because I didn’t play well. He played much better today. I give him credit,” Tsitsipas said. “The way I played, it should have been in three, not five. I don’t know how I got to five. I guess with my fighting spirit, somehow I managed to win those two sets.

“I didn’t manage to get even close to that level that I played last year. I just saw him as a more improved, more solid player than he was last year.”

It is Tsitsipas’ second consecutive disappointing five-set loss at a major. At Roland Garros, former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka beat Tsitsipas 8-6 in the fifth set of their fourth-round match. The Greek finishes his grass-court season with a 2-3 record after an opening-round loss at ‘s-Hertogenbosch and a quarter-final defeat at The Queen’s Club.

“It was very, very difficult to overcome that match. I was really disappointed. I am disappointed now. People expected things from me. I didn’t deliver. When you get so much support, so much energy, so much positivity from everyone, just ruin everything by yourself, it’s devastating,” Tsitsipas said. “I should be the one creating. I should be the one just playing my game. I can’t seem to find a way to do that.”

Tsitsipas was also put off by the change of surface, never finding a way to adjust to grass this year.

“I felt very uncomfortable. I changed my technique. I’ve changed my movement accordingly, according to the surface. When I’m playing out there, I don’t really play my game the way I want to play just because the grass just forces you to change,” Tsitsipas said. “You have to stay lower. You have to kind of make these micro changes in your game, the way you serve, because the ball is sliding, the ball is staying low. That’s what I’m really frustrated about. I don’t play my game. I play someone else’s game.”

A reporter asked Tsitsipas at his news conference if he will take some time off now to regroup.

“I’ll discuss it with my team. I don’t know,” Tsitsipas said. “Maybe I don’t deserve a break.

Lloyd Harris’s coach can apparently predict the future. Leading into Wimbledon, Anthony Harris (no relation) had been telling the South African that he would be playing Roger Federer – and that was prior to the draw ceremony last Friday.

“My coach has been calling me for the last three weeks, saying, ‘Look you’re going to play Roger first round.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah sure. It’s like one of 128,’” the 22-year-old said in an interview with ATPTour.com.

While the odds were in Harris’s favour, the luck of the draw placed him on line 127 – directly above Federer, the No. 2 seed and eight-time Wimbledon champion.

“[My coach] came to me in the lounge – I was sitting there with my mom – and he was like, ‘I don’t know how this happened, but it came true,’ and we were kind of shocked and surprised and excited at the same time,” said Harris.

Day 2 Preview: Federer, Nadal Start Campaigns

Harris has idolised the Swiss since he was five years old, and in fact, on his first visit to Wimbledon in 2007, he watched Federer play Marat Safin on Centre Court. Federer won 6-1, 6-4, 7-6(4) en route to his fifth title at The All England Club.

“I’ve been watching him all my life,” Harris said. “It was one of my best experiences when I was 10 years old… my parents flew me over here to watch some tennis, and my first match I got to see was him and Safin on Centre Court. It was just mind-blowing for me watching these guys go about…

“Now I’m here and I’m going to play against him. It’s just something special for me.”

Making it even more special when he walks onto Centre Court with his idol is that Tuesday’s match will mark Harris’s main draw debut at Wimbledon.

“It’s hard to describe. It’s an amazing feeling and I’m super excited, especially my first time to play probably the greatest grass player, the greatest tennis player of all-time,” he said. “It’s going to be something electrifying for sure. It’s going to be one of those goosebump moments for the first time in my career where I’m going to go out on the Centre Court.”

Harris broke into the Top 100 earlier this season, and is currently at a career-high No. 86 in the ATP Rankings. Last month, he scored his first Grand Slam victory when he rallied to defeat Czech Lukas Rosol in five sets at Roland Garros.

“I feel ready,” he said. “I’ve been preparing well and I’m looking forward to this opportunity.”

Defending champion Novak Djokovic was broken in his first service game of The Championships against German veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber. But the Serbian was not deterred, maintaining his undefeated record in the first round at Wimbledon (15-0).

Djokovic, a four-time champion at this major, beat Kohlschreiber 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 to move into the second round on the London grass. The World No. 1 struck 36 winners to just 19 unforced errors, advancing after two hours and two minutes in his first match with 2001 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic on his team, alongside Marian Vajda.

Kohlschreiber was a tricky first-round opponent for Djokovic, as the 35-year-old defeated the top seed at the BNP Paribas Open earlier this year, and also pushed him to three sets at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. But Djokovic was locked in from the baseline in a match that featured creative rallies moreso than power, extending his FedEx ATP Head2Head series lead against the World No. 57 to 11-2.

Djokovic did not play a grass-court tournament before arriving at The Championships this year. But that was not a stunner for the Serbian, who did not compete on the surface before Wimbledon ahead of three of his runs to the title here. The 32-year-old’s last event was Roland Garros, where he lost in the semi-finals against two-time finalist Dominic Thiem.

The top seed is in a far different position at the All England Club this season compared to last year. Then, Djokovic was World No. 21, struggling to recover from a right elbow injury. But the Serbian found his best tennis to claim his fourth Wimbledon title.

Djokovic will next face Denis Kudla, who defeated Tunisian Malek Jaziri 6-4, 6-1, 6-3. It will be their first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting.

Grass has been Kudla’s best surface, as the American has now won 52.5 per cent of his matches on it. In 2015, he made the fourth round at Wimbledon. But Kudla owns an 0-9 record against opponents placed inside the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings.

Also in Djokovic’s section, Argentine Leonardo Mayer beat former Top 10 player Ernests Gulbis 6-1, 7-6(12), 6-2 in two hours and 17 minutes. Mayer, who advanced to the fourth round at SW19 in 2014, converted on five of the 17 break points he earned against the Latvian.

Did You Know?
Djokovic has not lost in the first round of a Grand Slam since he was 18. Paul Goldstein beat him in the opening round of the 2006 Australian Open.

No. 31 (Career-High) Taylor Fritz, +11
More than three years after reaching his first ATP Tour final at 2016 Memphis, Taylor Fritz lifted his maiden tour-level trophy at the Nature Valley International in Eastbourne. The 21-year-old American defeated top seed Guido Pella and British No. 1 Kyle Edmund en route to the championship match, where he overcame countryman Sam Querrey in straight sets. The 6’4″ Californian climbs 11 spots to a career-high No. 31 in the ATP Rankings. Read More

No. 46 (Career-High) Lorenzo Sonego, +29
The 24-year-old entered the Turkish Airlines Open Antalya without a victory on grass, riding a six-match tour-level losing streak that dated back to his last-eight run at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters in April. But Sonego defeated three seeded players to reach his first ATP Tour final, and saved championship point against Miomir Kecmanovic, before claiming his first ATP Tour crown. The Italian soars 29 positions to a career-high No. 46 in the ATP Rankings. Read More

No. 67 (Career-High) Miomir Kecmanovic, +15
The Serbian reached his first tour-level final in Antalya and found himself just one point away from the title against Sonego. Kecmanovic dropped serve once in 48 service games to reach the final, overcoming third seed Jordan Thompson in the last four in a final-set tie-break The 19-year-old rises 15 positions to a career-high No. 67 in the ATP Rankings.

Other Notable Movers
No. 50 Pablo Carreno Busta, +9
No. 58 Mikhail Kukushkin, -11
No. 65 Sam Querrey, +14
No. 83 Hugo Dellien, +10
No. 89 Thomas Fabbiano, +13
No. 91 Damir Dzumhur, -28

History is on the side of the Big Three — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — entering Wimbledon, as the legendary trio has combined to claim 14 of the past 16 titles at The Championships.

And although some may look to Grand Slam champions Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic, 2018 finalist Kevin Anderson or recent Roland Garros runner-up Dominic Thiem to spring a surprise on the grass, former World No. 1 Mats Wilander has other ideas. His sights are set on current or recent #NextGenATP players.

“I think the surprise is the group of young players that has started to present themselves. Stefanos Tsitsipas made the semi-finals of the Australian Open. There is Denis Shapovalov, there is Felix Auger-Aliassime, there is Daniil Medvedev, there is Karen Khachanov,” Wilander said. “There are so many young players and I feel like Wimbledon is where they need to present themselves and I believe that one of the 19, 20, 21-year-old guys is going to do it this year.”

Each of those five players Wilander named either has competed at the Next Gen ATP Finals or is currently a #NextGenATP star. They range in age from 18 (Auger-Aliassime) to 23 (Khachanov and Medvedev). But they all have enjoyed impressive ascents up the ATP Rankings over the past two years.

Entering the first week of Wimbledon in 2017, none of those five players were placed inside the Top 30 of the ATP Rankings. This year, they all are. Of the group, Tsitsipas has advanced furthest at a Grand Slam, reaching the semi-finals at this year’s Australian Open. They all have made at least the semi-finals of an ATP Masters 1000 tournament, with Khachanov triumphing at last year’s Rolex Paris Masters.

No player who has competed at the 21-and-under season finale in Milan or is currently a #NextGenATP competitor has won a Grand Slam title. If one does at SW19, they will become the 150th men’s singles major winner in history.

Wilander’s fellow Swede, Jonas Bjorkman, with whom he won this week’s ATP Champions Tour event — the Svaneholm Open — thinks that a member of the Big Three will reign again at the All England Club.

“It’s going to be a boring answer,” said Bjorkman, the former World No. 4 who climbed to No. 1 in the ATP Doubles Rankings. “I’m going to go with Novak Djokovic, putting him and Roger Federer as favourites with maybe Rafael Nadal just underneath.”