Wimbledon 2018: Petra Kvitova and Caroline Garcia's first-round defeats highlight topsy-turvy start for women's top seeds

Ranked 51, Belarus’s Aliaksandra Sasnovich’s best run was earlier this year in Brisbane, where she reached the final. In one of the press conferences there, she said, “I think everyone can beat everyone. It is tennis. The ball is round, each day is a new day.” Sasnovich is known for her honesty and her dry humour every time a microphone is placed in front of her and she couldn’t have been more real about tennis. The ball is round, every day is a new day, and yes, everyone can beat everyone. On Tuesday on the No 1 Court, Sasnovich beat two-time Wimbledon champion and a heavy tournament favourite, Petra Kvitova in usually Kvitova-friendly three sets. She didn’t just edge out a win against a top-10 player. She beat her 6-0 in the third. [caption id=“attachment_4662991” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Aliaksandra Sasnovich, left, shakes hands with Petra Kvitova after defeating her in their first round. AP [/caption] Kvitova came into Wimbledon this year with six titles behind her, the most recent one on grass in Birmingham, less than two weeks ago. She withdrew from Eastbourne the week before Wimbledon, where she was doing well, to rest up in the interest of being fresh for what is considered to be the most prestigious and, more importantly, her favourite Grand Slam. Sasnovich can come good on fast courts, has a mean backhand and on Tuesday she troubled Kvitova with an array of drop shots and passing shots. Kvitova’s occasional screams of “Pojd!” did little to disturb Sasnovich’s rhythm and it was the rare instance of P3tra (the one who closes out tricky matches in three sets) kept at bay by the inspired Belarusian. Sasnovich closed the aforementioned quote by saying, “I love tennis. I love this life.” You got to love this tennis life to swat away the drudgery that can accompany the players every day on the tour. In recent times, no one knows this better than Belinda Bencic. Bencic saw success early, beating Serena Williams in the semi-finals and Simona Halep in the finals for a title at the Canadian Open in 2015. It looked like Bencic could get only better from there but injuries marred Bencic’s prodigious run and she had to fight it out one step below the top tour. Sasnovich has a point, how can you do that if you don’t love this life? As recently as late 2017, Bencic was playing WTA 125K series and winning ITF tournaments. She likes the grass courts and she ran into No 6 Caroline Garcia. Bencic took a while to get comfortable but snatched the first set in a tie-break. She played a textbook I-am-finding-my-way-back-into-the-tour match: occasional spark of her old top-10 self to hit down the line winners on a whim, accompanied by doubts and caution every time she couldn’t make the first serve. She closed it out as Garcia lost her footing early in the second set and Bencic would build mountains of confidence out of this win and try to get back to where she rightly belongs. One other top player lost her footing on grass to an inspired player who loves to play on the courts of Wimbledon. US Open 2017 champion and French Open 2018 finalist Sloane Stephens was never able to get into the match and her first round loss to Donna Vekic on Day 1 was surprisingly straightforward even as it was a tricky opening match for a seeded player. Stephens possesses footwork gifted by the tennis gods, which is as effective as it is elegant and helps her to switch between defence and offence without much notice. In tennis, sometimes, it is difficult to explain wins and losses, reducing them to a set of instances that went right for one player or went wrong for another. Maria Sharapova, another player trying to get back to positions she enjoyed earlier on tour, lost to 132 ranked Vitalia Diatchenko. Sharapova had eight aces and 10 double faults, and 41 percent on second serve points won. Sharapova was cruising, a set and 5-2 up, until she wasn’t. The numbers will tell you that it was a sloppy match all round — Sharapova would have clearly felt like Spain who crashed out of the World Cup against Russia a few days ago — with Sharapova double faulting at match point. Only here, a compatriot got the better of her. Sharapova is on the long road back and is yet to have consistent deeper runs in Grand Slams, her best run so far coming on her now best surface, clay, a quarter-final apperance at the French Open this year. As Sasnovich observed, everyone can beat everyone and none of these upsets is an absolute shocker considering the winners who came through and the surface they are playing on — something that doesn’t forgive a moment’s loss of concentration. Topsy-turvy opening two days of Wimbledon, where four top-10 seeds (and 10 in all on the women’s side and 11 in men’s) have bowed out so far, for a topsy-turvy tour with players jostling for positions that would rightly reflect their talent. There is more incoming — another Belarusian is trying to get back to her old ways of winning Grand Slams — Victoria Azarenka faces Slam finalist Karolina Pliskova on Wednesday. After beating the tournament favourite, Sasnovich had more memorable things to say when asked if she played the best match of her career. “I don’t think so.” She then cracked a smile to add, “I could play better. I see myself better.” The tour agrees.