Men’s defending champion Jannik Sinner flirted with a first-round exit before ​passing a stern physical test on the opening day of Wimbledon but several seeds departed on a day when defeats for ‌British players piled up.

With chief rival Carlos Alcaraz injured, Sinner is the big favourite ​to retain his crown but arrived with question marks over his stamina after collapsing to ⁠a shock second-round defeat at the French Open.

When he lost the first and third sets to Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic on Centre Court he looked in danger of becoming only the third defending men’s champion to lose in round one but battled to ‌win 4-6 6-3 6-7(6) 6-2 6-3.

While Sinner lived to fight another day, men’s 11th and 12th seeds Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev bowed out. Ruud was handed a tough draw in ‌the shape of big-serving Pole Hubert Hurkacz and duly lost 6-4 6-2 7-6(7) while Rublev was edged ‌out ⁠in a five-set cliffhanger against fellow Russian Roman Safiullin, losing a decider set tiebreaker 14-12 ⁠after missing two match points.

Home hopes quashed

There was heartbreak too for surprise French Open runner-up Maja Chwalinska as she lost 2-6 7-5 6-2 to Thai qualifier Mananchaya Sawangkaew on Monday (June 29, 2026) after the Pole fell and hurt herself while on match point.

Japan’s Naomi Osaka once again ​dressed to impress and her tennis shone too ‌as the 14th seed beat Elsa Jacquemot 6-1 7-5.

American fourth seed Jessica Pegula beat Darja Vidmanova 7-5 6-3 while Swiss 11th seed Belinda Bencic had far too much experience for young British wildcard Mika Stojsavljevic.

It was a grim day for the home nation.

Twenty-one players, including 12 wildcards, were in the first round ‌draw but after Emma Raducanu withdrew with an injury on the eve of the tournament, she ​was followed on Monday (June 29) by Jack Draper who announced he was also pulling out with an arm injury.

Six other home players did take to court but all six lost, including ⁠British number one Cameron Norrie, seeded 26, beaten in five sets by American qualifier Michael Zheng.

Sinner survives fall and bloodies foot

Sinner racked up his 94th Grand Slam match-win, equalling the Italian record of Nicola Pietrangeli, but shed plenty ‌of sweat and a little blood in reaching that mark.

“It was a little tight in the beginning, I didn’t play at my best but I tried to get into it. It was my first official match on grass (this season) which is also a very important factor,” Sinner told the Centre Court crowd.

“I’m happy I turned it around because the third set was a very tough one to swallow.”

Sinner suffered a fall in the third set and later had blood stains on his white shoe from a broken toenail. He had a point to ‌go two sets to one ahead but lost it and Kecmanovic pounced.

The Italian dominated from then and later said his foot injury ​was not serious despite the pounding it took during his third-longest match at Wimbledon at three hours and 30 minutes.

“I’m actually surprised that they let me keep playing because my ⁠all white outfit turned into a little red,” he added.

Court One fans expecting to see Raducanu in action were left ⁠disappointed as a duel between two more former U.S. Open champions Daniil Medvedev and Marin Cilic fell flat.

Cilic was made to look all of his 37 years as eighth seed Medvedev romped to ‌a 6-1 6-2 6-4 victory.

Two of the new generation shone though. Brazil’s Joao Fonseca, cheered on by a large contingent of fans in yellow soccer shirts, beat Spanish veteran Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6(4) 6-4 ​6-3 while rising Spanish teenager Rafael Jodar, also aged 19, made an impressive debut, beating British wildcard Felix Gill 6-3 6-3 7-5.

Top-ranked Jannik Sinner is feeling optimistic about his Wimbledon title defense after sweating through an exhibition match in a heat wave on Wednesday (June 24, 2026) and confirming he underwent testing following his physical meltdown at the French Open.

The Italian star hasn’t entered any tour-level events in the buildup to the grass-court Grand Slam, which starts Monday (June 29, 2026), so his 6-3, 6-3 victory over Cam Norrie in sweltering west London will have to suffice.

“It was very warm, but physically I felt good,” Sinner told reporters.

The appearance at the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic came just under a month after the Italian star struggled with dizziness in a stunning second-round loss at the French Open.

“We did some testing. We tried to understand what happened,” he said. “We came to a conclusion which is very good.” Wednesday’s match went ahead with southern England under a “ red warning ” for extreme heat issued by Britain’s national weather service.

“As Cam said, a very hot day,” Sinner said in an on-court interview. “Exhibition matches, they are good because we try out a couple of things and hopefully be as good as we can then for the next week.” The interviewer asked him what he was trying out. “I don’t know,” a smiling Sinner responded.

Earlier on Wednesday at the All England Club, Sinner wore a cooling vest at practice. During the match against Norrie, he didn’t use ice packs like in the past.

The early afternoon temperature in Fulham, where the grass-court event was held, was 33 C (91.4 F) with a slight breeze.

The temperature at Wimbledon on Monday is expected to be a much more manageable 24 C (75 F).

In Paris, he was ahead by two sets and 5-1 in the third before losing to Juan Manuel Cerundolo 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1. The temperature on Court Philippe-Chatrier rose to 32 C (90 F) during the match, and Sinner was clearly having a tough time cooling himself down as he reached for multiple ice bags.

Sinner, who has a history of problems with heat and cramps, didn’t blame the heat entirely after the loss. “I think many things together caused this problem. I just need my time now to process what went wrong here,” he said at the time.

At the grass-court major a year ago, Sinner beat Carlos Alcaraz 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in the final for his first Wimbledon title. Alcaraz will miss this year’s tournament because of a wrist injury.

The U.K.’s weather service said the region could see “a two to three-day period where maximum temperatures in the shade exceed 37 Celsius, perhaps rising to 38 to 40 Celsius in some places. The heat will be accompanied by high humidity, exacerbating the potential for discomfort and health impacts, with very warm and humid night times also reducing the ability for people to recover overnight.”

Heat impacts Wimbledon qualifying tournament

Because of the heat warnings, the ball boys and ball girls for Wednesday’s matches at Wimbledon’s qualifying tournament were kept home. Their duties were handled by “our Court Services team — who are all adults,” the All England Club said.

Also Wednesday, there was a temporary loss of power to part of the Roehampton qualifying venue “which meant that the electronic line calling system could not function,” the club added. Heat will be looked at as a possible cause for the outage.