Stosur Suffers Shock Loss as Wimbledon Begins

The third tennis grand slam of the year, Wimbledon has served off today in London and already witnessed the fall of a seeded player in the women’s draw.

With women’s defending champion Marion Bartoli and Serena Williams not scheduled to open their Wimbledon campaign today, the big result was the first loss of 17th seed Samantha Stosur.

The 17th seed from Australia fell to a straight sets 6-3, 6-4 loss to Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium in 70 minutes, to maintain her poor record on Wimbledon’s grass court where the third round is the furthest she has ever gone.

Both players matched each other but Wickmayer edged Stosur in four of six break points to progress to the second round where she will face Ana Konjuh or Marina Erakovic.

In another first round match completed in the early session of the women’s draw, 32nd seed Elena Vesnina came through with a relatively straightforward 6-0, 6-4 win over Patricia Mayr-Achleitner.

Second seed Na Li of China faces Paula Kania, fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska will come up against Andreea Mitu while former champion Venus Williams will meet Maria Teresa Torro in her first round match.

In the men’s draw, Andy Murray will begin the defence of his title against David Goffin while second seed Novak Djokovic begins his campaign in the evening session against Andrey Golubev.