Wimbledon 2022, Opening Day Preview. Good day for the Brits with wins for Murray, Norrie and Raducanu

The opening day of Wimbledon saw big crowds return to SW19 for the first time in a few years.

It wouldn’t be Wimbledon without the traditional rain. However, a small amount of rain fell, but the roof was on centre court which didn’t dampen the spectators who turned up for the opening day of the world’s best tennis major.

Defending men’s champion and number 1 seed Novak Djokovic opened up his defence of the title when he was first up on centre court against Korean Soonwoo Kwon.

Despite dropping the second set, the Serbian progressed into the second round 6-3,3-6,6-3,6-4

Great Britain’s number one lady’s player Emma Raducanu was second up on centre court where she was up against Belgium’s Alison Van Uytvanck.

Raducanu came into the tournament having had very little practice after pulling out of the recent Nottingham Open event.

The 19-year-old Brit was pushed all the way before defeating Van Uytvanck in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 on her debut on the centre court at Wimbledon.

Next up on a packed centre court was Andy Murray who faced Australian James Duckworth, ranked 74 in the world.

Murray lost a tight opening set 6-4, but reeled of three sets in a row to win in 2 hours and 43 minutes 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4

In the ladies Singles event, there was wins for the number three seed Ons Jabeur in straight sets against Swedon’s Mirjam Bjorklundand and the number two seed Anett Kontaveit over Bernarda Pera also in straight sets.

Two more British girls were in action on the opening day, but they both failed to progress to the next round.

Yuriko Miyazaki pushed France’s Caroline Garcia all the way before losing out in a final set tie break.

London’s Jodie Burrage was also knocked out in the first round by Latvian Lesia Tsurenko in straight sets 6-2, 6-3.

It wasn’t all bad news for British tennis, with the number nine seed in the men’s event Cameron Norrie completing a 6-0,7-6, 6-3 win over Spaniard Pablo Andujar.

In other matches played in the opening round of the men’s tournament the number seven seed Hurbert Hurkacz was knocked out. The Pole went two sets down against Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, before recovering to win the next two sets to take the match into a final set tie break. After almost three and a half hours, the Spaniard booked his name into the second round after winning the tie break 10-8.

There was a big scare for the highly thought of 19-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz who eventually got the better of Germany’s Jan Lennard Struff in a marathon match that lasted a shade over four hours.

Alcaraz edged out his opponent in the final set 6-4 to go through to the second round and complete a good day for Spanish tennis.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt