Three former men’s champions began their Wimbledon campaign with straight set wins on Day 2 as seven time champion Roger Federer, two time champion Rafael Nadal and the 2013 champion Andy Murray advanced to the second round. Swiss superstar Federer, a winner from 2003-2007, 2009 & 2012 won on center court against Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina 6-1,6-3,6-3. The Scott Andy Murray followed him as he defeated Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 6-4,7-6(3),6-4. The Spaniard Rafael Nadal who won in 2008 & 2010 started his campaign on court no. 1 with an easy 6-4,6-2,6-4 win over the Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci.

Thomas Berdych needed four sets to beat the stylish Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-2,6-7(8),7-6(3),7-6(5) in the last match on court 1. There were better fortunes for the other French players Giles Simon, Jo Wilfred Tsonga and Gael Monfils. Tsonga dodged a bullet as he beat the dangerous left hander Gilles Muller of Luxembourg in five sets. Also winning were the in-form Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, Andreas Seppi of Italy and Victor Troicki of Serbia.

The Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Roberto Bautista Agut also advanced but the no. 29 seed Guillermo Garcia Lopez was upset by fellow Spaniard Pablo Andujar. Another seed to fall was the no. 31 seed American Jack Sock who lost in four sets to the Australian Sam Groth. The best match of the day was on court no. 10 where the 18 year old Croat Borna Coric accounted for Roger Federer’s 2013 second round conqueror Sergey Stakhovsky of Russia 9-7 in the fifth set. There were also five set wins for Aljaz Bedene and Vasek Pospisil.

Here is a list of second round matches to be played on Day 3 in the men’s singles with my pick mentioned first:-

Novak Djokovic (1) v. Jarrko Nieminen
Bernard Tomic (27) v. Pierre-Hugues Herbert
Marcel Granollers v. Leonardo Mayer (24)
Kevin Anderson (14) v. Marsel Ilhan
Marin Cilic (9) v. Ricardas Berankis
John Isner (17) v. Matthew Ebden
Alexander Zverev v. Dennis Kudla
Kei Nishikori (5) v. Santiago Giraldo
Stanislas Wawrinka (4) v. Victor-Estrella Burgos
Dominic Thiem (32) v. Fernando Verdasco
Marcos Baghdatis v. John Millman
David Goffin (16) v. Liam Broady
Grigor Dmitrov (11) v. Steve Johnson
Richard Gasquet (21) v. Kenny De Schepper
Nick Kyrgios (26) v. Juan Monaco
Milos Raonic (7) v. Tommy Haas

Among the ladies there were easy wins for the defending champion Petra Kvitova and the former world number one Caroline Wozniacki. The 2011 & 2014 champion Kvitova took only 36 minutes to beat Kiki Bertens of Netherlands 6-1,6-0. However there was major disappointment for the 3rd seed Simona Halep who lost in three sets to little known Slovak Jana Cepelova and the Canadian Eugene Bouchard lost to the unheralded Ying-Ying Duan of China. Timea Bacsinszky, Ekaterina Makarova, Angelique Kerber, Sabine Lisicki, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Alize Cornet and Garbine Muruguza were among the seeds to advance on Day 2.

– Rasesh Mehta [Rasesh Mehta is an analyst with the Tennis Galaxy.You can reach him at the email: sportzcosmos@gmail.com]