The first day of The Championships at the All England Tennis Club in Great Britain proved productive for one Australian, not so much for another.
Samantha Stosur, playing some of her best tennis in quite some time, getting past Poland’s Magda Linette in straight sets 7 – 5 6 – 3 and will next face Germany’s Sabine Lisicki in the second round.
It is only the fourth time in 14 Wimbledons that Stosur has not suffered an ignominious first-round exit.
After the match, in typical Stosur fashion, she assessed her performance as decent, but leaving room for improvement.
Over on the men’s side, Sam Groth was beaten by Kei Nishikori in straight sets, 6 – 4 6 – 2 7 – 5. He will see his world-ranking plummet from the career best of number 53 from eight months ago to 130th.
Along with the usual spate of injuries and surgeries that affect professional tennis player, Groth has had nothing but bad fortune at Wimbledon in terms of the draw, where he has often drawn an opponent from the top seeds.
This years’ Grand Slams have demonstrated his bad fortune emphatically. He drew Andy Murray in the Australian Open, arguably one of the best clay court players of all-time in Rafael Nadal at the French Open, and Nishikori at Wimbledon, the current world number six.
