London: Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy delivered the biggest upset of the 2025 Wimbledon so far, ousting No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula 6-2, 6-3 in just 58 minutes in a women’s singles first-round match here on Tuesday. The result was the quickest defeat of a Top 5 seed at a major since Jule Niemeier’s 58-minute 6-4, 6-0 defeat of Anett Kontaveit in the second round of Wimbledon 2022, as per WTA.
Cocciaretto took the ball relentlessly early to redirect all of the Americans’ pace, tallying 17 winners to Pegula’s five. She also served flawlessly, conceding just eight points in total behind her delivery, and did not face a break point during the match — while capturing Pegula’s serve three times. Cocciaretto advanced to the third round of Wimbledon for the second time, and reversed her 6-4, 6-0 loss to Pegula at that stage in 2023.
Pegula fell in the first round of a Grand Slam for the first time since Roland Garros 2020, where she lost her opener to Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 6-1.
There was another upset on Day 2 as Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic stunned fifth seed Zheng Qinwen of China in the women’s singles first round. The Czech player advanced to the next round with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 win at the All-England Club here.
With 10 women’s doubles Grand Slam titles in her pocket, Siniakova, 29, is trying to make new breakthroughs in the singles and showed a lot of resilience to win the first set 7-5, reports Xinhua.
After the 22-year-old Zheng bounced back to secure victory in the second set 6-4, Siniakova dominated the final set with a 5-0 start and sealed the win at 6-1.
Five-time Grand Slam winner Iga Swiatek of Poland started her campaign with a straight sets win in her opening match. Swiatek, a four-time French Open winner and one-time US Open titlist, took out Polina Kudermetova 7-5, 6-1 to secure her place in the second round.
Meanwhile, Wang Xinyu cruised past Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova in two straight sets 7-5, 6-2 to reach the women’s singles second round here on Tuesday.
In other first-round matches, Danielle Collins of the United States defeated Camila Osorio of Colombia 6-3, 6-2; Maria Sakkari of Greece defeated Anna Blinkova 6-4. 6-4 while Caty McNally of the United States got the better of Jodie Burrage 6-3, 6-1. (IANS)
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