Wimbledon 2017, Day 1 highlights: From Venus Williams' 'colour' violation to Naomi Osaka, the bullet train

It was an action-packed first day at Wimbledon with defending champion Andy Murray and French Open champion Rafael Nadal posting comfortable straight-set victories. In the women’s game, second seed Simona Halep and comeback queen Petra Kvitova all progressed to the second round. But it’s not Wimbledon without early upsets as fifth seed Stan Wawrinka was knocked out by Russian Daniil Medvedev further exposing his grass court weakness. Here’s a look at some of the off-court stories from Day 1 at Wimbledon.

Storm in a D cup

Men no longer need to wear ties in parliament’s House of Commons, but fellow British institution Wimbledon will absolutely not follow suit by slackening its strict dress codes for players, officials and guests. “I think it’s part of the charm,” said chief executive Richard Lewis. “So no.”

This rigourous rule-following and devotional worship for the all-white rule came to the fore when Venus Williams had to change her bra mid-match due to an apparent violation of Wimbledon’s strict guidelines over on-court attire.

However, the 37-year-old refused to discuss whether her pink bra contravened rules.

“I don’t like talking about bras in press conferences. It’s weird. I don’t want to talk about undergarments. It’s kind of awkward for me. I’ll leave that to you. You can talk about it with your friends. I’m going to pass,” said the five-time champion.

Better late than never

After four and a half hours, Aljaz Bedene carved out the only break of the match in the last game to beat Ivo Karlovic 8-6 in the decider after four tiebreak sets.

Comeback queen

Carina Witthoft made the second round by coming back from 0-5 and a match point down in the final set to beat Mirjana Lucic Baroni 6-3, 5-7, 8-6.

Retiring types

Nick Kyrgios, Victor Troicki and Denis Istomin all quit their first round matches with injury on Monday. Troicki, in fact, lasted just 17 minutes before retiring against Florian Mayer.

Name that train

Japan’s Naomi Osaka revealed that second round opponent Barbora Strycova has a nickname for her — Shinkansen. “The Shinkansen, which is like a Japanese bullet train. I don’t know why she calls me it.”

Quotes of the day

"It was very special for me to feel the energy from the crowd again."@Petra_Kvitova returns: https://t.co/BAFNJy9Juq#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/HqvZwgetfK

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 4, 2017

“Every time I watch her play now, I’m, like, an emotional wreck and crying and everything. I try not to watch too many of her matches.”

— Madison Keys on Petra Kvitova’s comeback after suffering serious injuries to her hands in a terrifying knife attack at her home.

“I’m hoping no one is going to boo me.”

— Dustin Brown on facing home favourite Andy Murray in the second round.

Stats of the day

56 — hours spent by Des Robson queueing for tickets in order to secure first position in the line. The computer technician, 48, has never been to Wimbledon before. “I went through all my twenties and thirties thinking, you know, ‘one year’,” he said. “The cherry on the cake is Murray playing.”

62 — minutes it took Kei Nishikori to breeze past Marco Cecchinato.

850 — Nadal’s wins in his career, secured after his victory over Millman. He is only the seventh player to reach the landmark.

2002 — the last time four tie-break sets were played in a Wimbledon singles match. That was before Karlovic and Bedene went head-to-head on Monday.

With inputs from AFP