Preview: Federer, Nadal Start Wimbledon Campaigns On Day 2

  • Posted: Jul 01, 2019

Preview: Federer, Nadal Start Wimbledon Campaigns On Day 2

Thiem, Nishikori and Isner also feature on Tuesday

Second seed Roger Federer and third seed Rafael Nadal kick off their pursuits for another Wimbledon title on a busy Day 2 of The Championships. Fifth seed Dominic Thiem and eighth seed Kei Nishikori also compete in their first grass-court matches of the season.

With a 95-12 record at Wimbledon, Federer can hit triple digits in match wins if he reaches the semi-finals. He’ll first need to get through South African Lloyd Harris, who makes his main draw debut at The All England Club. Federer is the only player in the tournament, man or woman, to compete at The Championships for a staggering 21 years in a row. The Swiss hasn’t lost in the opening round here since 2000.

Nadal plays his first match since winning his 12th Roland Garros title (d. Thiem) when he meets Yuichi Sugita. The Japanese is at his best on this surface, having won his lone ATP Tour title two years ago in Antalya (d. Mannarino). The Spaniard has suffered a few early upsets at this event, but reached the semi-finals last year and becomes extremely dangerous once he gets going. When Nadal has cleared the opening week, he has reached the championship match on five of those eight occasions.

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Thiem also hits the court for his first match since his second consecutive runner-up showing at Roland Garros (l. to Nadal), but the Austrian won’t have it easy against Sam Querrey. The American reached the semi-finals here in 2017 and finished runner-up last week in Eastbourne (l. to Fritz). Thiem leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 3-1, but this will be their first grass-court meeting.

Nishikori takes on Brazilian Thiago Monteiro and looks to continue his success at majors. The Japanese has reached the second week in 11 of his past 12 Grand Slams. Nishikori recorded his best showing at this event with a quarter-final finish last year.

Other notable matches on Day 2 included ninth seed John Isner against #NextGenATP Norwegian Casper Ruud. Isner is playing his first match since suffering a broken left foot during the final of the Miami Open presented by Itau (l. to Federer).

Italian Fabio Fognini, seeded 12th, plays #NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe and No. 13 seed Marin Cilic of Croatia meets Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in a battle of grass-court experts. Cilic finished runner-up here in 2017 (l. to Federer) and Mannarino won his first ATP Tour title last month on the grass of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (d. Thompson).

More From The Championships
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* Read Draw Preview
* How Federer’s Idol Changed From Becker To Edberg
* Nadal: ‘All That Matters Is To Win

ORDER OF PLAY – TUESDAY, 2 JULY 2019

Centre Court start 13:00
WTA match
[2] Roger Federer vs Lloyd Harris
WTA match

No. 1 Court start 13:00
Two WTA matches
[3] Rafael Nadal vs Yuichi Sugita

No. 2 Court start 11:00
WTA match
[5] Dominic Thiem vs Sam Querrey
WTA match
[9] John Isner vs Casper Ruud

No. 3 Court start 11:00
Nick Kyrgios vs Jordan Thompson
Two WTA matches
[13] Marin Cilic vs Adrian Mannarino

Court 12 start 11:00
[8] Kei Nishikori vs Thiago Monteiro
WTA match
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs Bernard Tomic
WTA match

Court 18 start 11:00
Federico Delbonis vs Daniel Evans
WTA match
[12] Fabio Fognini vs Frances Tiafoe

Court 4 start 11:00
WTA match
[20] Gilles Simon vs Salvatore Caruso
[33] Jan-Lennard Struff vs Radu Albot

Court 5 start 11:00
Two WTA matches
Filip Krajinovic vs Dominik Koepfer
Mikhail Kukushkin vs Pablo Andujar

Court 6 start 11:00
Two WTA matches
Yasutaka Uchiyama vs Tennys Sandgren
[31] Laslo Djere vs Guido Andreozzi

Court 7 start 11:00
Steve Johnson vs Albert Ramos-Vinolas
Two WTA matches
John Millman vs Hugo Dellien

Court 8 start 11:00
WTA match
Marcos Baghdatis vs Brayden Schnur
Noah Rubin vs Jay Clarke
WTA match

Court 9 start 11:00
WTA match
Cristian Garin vs Andrey Rublev
WTA match
Dennis Novak vs Marton Fucsovics

Court 10 start 11:00
WTA match
[17] Matteo Berrettini vs Aljaz Bedene
WTA match
Alexander Bublik vs Gregoire Barrere

Court 14 start 11:00
Two WTA matches
[29] Denis Shapovalov vs Ricardas Berankis
[27] Lucas Pouille vs Richard Gasquet

Court 15 start 11:00
[25] Alex de Minaur vs Marco Cecchinato
WTA match
[24] Diego Schwartzman vs Matthew Ebden
WTA match

Court 16 start 11:00
WTA match
Cameron Norrie vs Denis Istomin
Tomas Berdych vs Taylor Fritz

Court 17 start 11:00
[17[ Nikoloz Basilashvili vs James Ward
Two WTA matches
Joao Sousa vs Paul Jubb

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