LONDON —
Title contender
Matteo Berrettini was forced to pull out of Wimbledon on
Tuesday after testing positive for coronavirus as women’s top seed Iga Swiatek
extended her winning streak to 36 matches.
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Elsewhere on day
two of the Championships,
Serena Williams prepared to return to singles tennis
after a year away and Rafael Nadal was due to begin his quest to win the third
leg of a potential calendar Grand Slam.
The early action
at the All England Club on Tuesday was overshadowed by the announcement from
Berrettini — last year’s runner-up — that he was out of the event.
“I am
heartbroken to announce that I need to withdraw from @wimbledon due to a
positive COVID-19 test result,” the 26-year-old Italian wrote on Instagram.
Berrettini was
widely regarded as one of the biggest threats to defending champion
Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, having captured back-to-back grass-court titles in
Stuttgart and Queen’s.
He is the second
man to withdraw from Wimbledon with COVID in two days after 2017 runner-up
Marin Cilic of Croatia also tested positive.
“I have no words
to describe the extreme disappointment I feel,” Berrettini, seeded eighth, said
in his statement. “The dream is over for this year, but I will be back
stronger.”
The Italian was
a potential semi-final opponent for two-time champion Nadal.
His place in the
Wimbledon first round will be taken by
Sweden’s Elias Ymer, a lucky loser from
qualifying.
Wimbledon has
returned to normal this year after the tournament was canceled due to COVID in
2020 and last year was played in front of reduced crowds.
The All England
Club said in a statement that protocols remained in place to minimize the risk
of infection.
“We are
following UK guidance around assessment and isolation of any potential
infectious disease,” the statement said.
“Our player
medical team also continue to wear face masks for any consultation.”
Poland’s world
number one Swiatek coasted into the second round with a routine 6–0, 6–3
against Croatian qualifier Jana Fett.
The
French Open champion, who has won her past six tournaments, said she was relishing the
atmosphere at the grass-court tournament.
“I feel I have only played 12 weeks of my life on
grass but the whole atmosphere and tradition is pumping me up and just looking
forward to the next matches,” she said.
Also in the
women’s draw, fourth seed Paula Badosa of Spain beat American Louisa Chirico
for the loss of just three games.
Serena returns
Seven-time champion Williams faces unseeded Harmony Tan of France in
her first singles match since an injury forced her to pull out of her
first-round match last year.
Williams, 40,
won the last of her Wimbledon singles titles six years ago but reached the
final in 2018 and 2019.
The American,
who was given a wildcard for this year’s tournament, is stuck on 23 Grand Slam
singles wins — agonizingly one short of Margaret Court’s all-time record.
Nadal is halfway
to winning all four majors in 2022 after following up his
Australian Open triumph by winning his 14th French Open title.
No man has won
all the Grand Slams in a single year since Ron Laver in 1969, with Djokovic
falling just short last year when he lost in the final of the US Open.
The Spaniard’s win
at Roland Garros earlier this month took him to 22 Grand Slam singles titles —
two clear of Djokovic and Roger Federer.
Nadal won the
most recent of his two Wimbledon titles in 2010, having captured his first with
an epic triumph over Federer two years earlier.
There was a
question mark over his durability for the two weeks at Wimbledon having played
the entire French Open with his troublesome left foot anaesthetized.
The 36-year-old
second seed has since undergone a course of radiofrequency stimulation, a
treatment aimed at reducing nerve pain in his foot.
“I can walk
normal most of the days, almost every single day,” said Nadal, who faces
Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo in his opening match on Centre Court.
“When I wake up, I don’t
have this pain that I was having for the last year and a half.”
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