Day two at Wimbledon: Dan was Evans sent, Barty was hearty while Fed Express almost failed to deliver

By Paul Lagan at AELTC 

It might just be the second day of Wimbledon, and with the rain deciding to pop over to SW19 again and splash itself all over Henman Hill and the rest of the outside courts, it meant that the show courts were the centre of attention.

But before the deluge in the afternoon, up popped British number one Dan Evans.

At 31, the Brummy is probably realistic about his chances of winning a Grand Slam, yep, not a hell’s chance, but cheered on by an enthusiastic Court 2 crowd, just happy to be watching tennis, Evans produced a very professional display to see of potential dark horse Feliciano Lopez in three sets.

He was watched by his Davis Cup captain Leon Smith, who rather embarrassingly pipped up with a flurry of ‘C’mon Evo’ as each set reached it’s pivotal moment.

Evan’s responded positively and won in straight sets.

The clouds were gathering over the court and Evans will have been delighted not to have being part of a long match. 

The rain was on its way, and it then became a quick walk over to Centre Court to see if top seed Ashleigh Barty could live up to her billing as the tournament favourite now that champion Petra Kvitova pulled out pre-Championships with an injury.

The match had barely started before the roof was brought into play and the court was cocooned in a mesh of steel and glass – but at least the rain was kept out.

It’s usually the case the reigning champ opens the day’s proceedings, but it fell to the Australian to do the honours in a three quarters full centre Court.

Her opponent was her buddy, Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro. And it looked like the game would be over fairly quickly, as Barty raced into a 6-1 first set lead.

But Suarez Navarro fought back to take the second set in a tie-break.

But class will tell in the end, they say, and Barty waltzed through the final set, seeing off her opponent 6-1 to take the match by two sets to one.

If that was the starter, the main course would show some thrill and spills and ultimately see a tennis icon edge through into the second round by the skin of his teeth and the failure of a leg muscle on his opponent.

Rodger Federer stepped onto his second home, the multi-Wimbledon champion was expected to see off his 33-year-old adversary with relative ease.

But this was one delivery that almost failed to arrive.

Federer, 39, never really got going. There were flashes of his undoubted quality and racket dexterity, but there was the lack of power and unrelenting baseline winners and subtle, dinking cross-court drop shots and flashing backhand winners down the line.

This looked like a heavyweight boxer who has gone a few rounds too many.

Federer won the first set 6-4, but lost the second to a tie break. He was running on fumes in the third and duly lost 6-3.

But in the fourth set, the old stager suddenly find some form, and he raced into a 5-2 lead.

Then a lucky cross court forehand won a point, but the Frenchman, 33, crashed to the ground, with what looked like a thigh injury.

Ten minutes of physio was only enough to put Mannarino back on the court. But he lost his serve as he could hardly hold his racket and run at the same time.

He lost the set as well.

One point into the fifth set, he then lost all will to continue and retired.

Federer will have felt he got away with it. He said afterwards, “I was lucky, he was the better player.”

Luck is something all champions seem to be able to tap into. Federer will need to access that tap more frequently this week if he is to progress much further.

If Federer was lucky the Serena Williams Wimbledon career is almost over. The greatest female player ever to wield a racket pulled up injured in the first set at 3-3 in her Centre Court match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich.