Wimbledon is just not used to this kind of thing. On the hottest opening day in the history of the championships, with the temperature reaching 32.3C, British players sizzled with a record seven recording victories, the highest number on any day in the open era, beating the previous record of six.
Sonay Kartal got the ball rolling with a brilliant 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 win against the former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, and more than seven hours later Katie Boulter set the new mark, beating that achieved on day two in 2022, with an equally impressive 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 win against the former world No 2 Paula Badosa.
With 23 British players across the two singles events, the most since 1984, there was plenty of hope, if not total expectation, that several of them could progress to round two. Emma Raducanu and Cameron Norrie were always favoured to advance, and did, but Kartal, Billy Harris, Arthur Fery and Oliver Tarvet all defeated much higher-ranked opponents to break the record.
This time last year, the 23-year-old Kartal was ranked No 298, battling just to make it as a professional. On Monday, after a whirlwind 12 months, she gave British players the perfect start with an outstanding win against the 20th seed Ostapenko.
“I was happy to be first up,” the world No 51 Kartal said. “You know when you’re going to be on. I hope that maybe it can give the other guys a bit of extra motivation, if they need it.”
Ostapenko had beaten Kartal in Eastbourne last week and led 3-0 and 5-2 in the first set, only to squander three set points at 5-3 as Kartal won five games in a row to take the set. Although Ostapenko battled back to level, Kartal held her nerve in the third, overcoming a minor stumble when serving for the match at 5-0 to close it out two games later.
“I don’t think that I could have done too much better at times in that match,” said Kartal, who next plays Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria. “I feel confident. I feel like this is the best I’ve ever played on grass. It’s the most confident I’ve also got in my game, as well. It probably ranks top – just proving to myself that I can compete with the best. She’s an incredible player and has so much experience on the tour. She has an amazing game for grass. I think that one is probably my biggest win.”
If that was a surprise, then Fery’s 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 victory against Alexei Popyrin, the men’s 20th seed, was more akin to an earthquake. Ranked 461 and having struggled with injuries in the past couple of years, the 22-year-old had not even won a Tour-level match before and a few eyebrows were raised when he was given the last wildcard. Popyrin, by contrast, reached the last 16 at Roland Garros and defeated Novak Djokovic at the US Open last year.
The French-born Fery was also giving up eight inches in height to the 6ft 5in Australian but he returned brilliantly and stayed calm to clinch his best win, going one better than a year ago when he was beaten in five sets by Daniel Altmaier of Germany.
“I think I used the experience from last year to get over the line today,” Fery said. “Two years ago was against [Daniil] Medvedev, so I had not much expectation. Last year was really tough to lose in that manner. So definitely very proud and very special moment today to win here.
“I never thought I was going to quit, but I was struggling to find answers to my issues. It’s been tough. My ranking’s nowhere near where I want it to be and nowhere near where my level is. So I still have a lot of work on that front to do. Hopefully I’m over the worst of it, and I can now focus on my tennis and my career. I think I’m making good steps towards that.”
Centre Court (1.30pm BST start)
B Krejcikova (Cz, 17) v A Eala (Phi)
A Muller (Fr) v N Djokovic (Srb, 6)
D Yastremska (Ukr) v C Gauff (US, 2)
No.1 Court (1pm BST start)
J Sinner (It, 1) v L Nardi (It)
P Kvitova (Cz) v E Navarro (US, 10)
J Draper (GB, 4) v S Baez (Arg)
No.2 Court (11am BST start)
E Cocciaretto (It) v J Pegula (US, 3)
N Basilashvili (Geo) v L Musetti (It, 7)
I Swiatek (Pol, 8) v P Kudermetova
B Shelton (US, 10) v A Bolt (Aus)
No.3 Court (11am BST start)
J Monday (GB) v T Paul (US, 13)
M Andreeva (7) v M Sherif (Egy)
G Dimitrov (Bul, 19) v Y Nishioka (Jpn)
E Avenesyan (Arm) v E Rybakina (Kaz, 11)
Court 12 (11am BST start)
C Tauson (Den, 23) v H Watson (GB)
D Evans (GB) v J Clarke (GB)
G Monfils (Fr) v U Humbert (Fr, 18)
S Kenin (US, 28) v T Townsend (US)
Court 18 (11am BST start)
A de Minaur (Aus, 11) v R Carballes Baena (Sp)
M Joint (Aus) v L Samsonova (19)
C McNally (US) v J Burrage (GB)
H Gaston (Fr) v J Mensik (Cz, 15)
Selected courts only; full order of play here.
Tarvet, a college student in the US and the lowest-ranked player in the draw at world No 733, showed his run through qualifying was no fluke as he took out Leandro Riedi of Switzerland 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, setting up a clash with the two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz. “As a kid, it’s what you dream of,” he said.
“I came here when I was a little kid. It’s what you work for. Obviously, it’s a pretty long-term goal. But for it to happen so suddenly has been really special.”
Harris took out Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, Norrie battled past Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 and Raducanu made it six with a 6-3, 6-3 win against Mimi Xu, the Welsh teenager. Although Jacob Fearnley, Harriet Dart, Hannah Klugman, Henry Searle, Oliver Crawford and Mika Stojsavljevic were all defeated, Boulter made sure of the record with a win on Centre Court late on.
“I’ve played a lot of matches recently where I’ve started out great and then kind of let it slip,” Boulter said. “I played one like that at Queen’s [Club] which hurt me a lot so I just tried to compete, fight and hope for the best today.
“I had to hope that she missed and keep pushing myself to be positive. I had to keep going after the ball and hoping that it would happen, and today it actually did happen, so I’m thrilled.”
