Wimbledon 2025: Jessica Pegula, Qinwen Zheng, Lorenzo Musetti beaten as top seeds continue to tumble at SW19 – ‘Bad day at the office’

There have been upsets aplenty in the men’s draw, with four of the top 10 falling on the opening two days.

But the world No. 3 suffered a surprise 6-2 6-3 defeat in just 59 minutes against world No. 116 Elisabetta Cocciaretto.

Pegula hit only five winners in the match and made a whopping 24 unforced errors.

The American was gracious in defeat as she gave credit to Cocciaretto for playing at an “insane” level which she “couldn’t match”.

“It’s really a bummer to lose,” said Pegula, who had not lost in the first round of a Grand Slam in over five years.

“For this to happen today, it’s disappointing. I don’t know how else to put it. I’m upset that I wasn’t able to turn anything around. But at the same time, I do feel like she played kind of insane.

“Hats off to her. Kudos to her for playing at a high level that I couldn’t match it today.”

The only glimmer of positivity for Pegula? “Bonus is I can go prep for the hard courts, which seems to be my favourite surface anyway, and see if I can just make some more magic this summer, I guess.”

Before this Wimbledon, world No. 3 Alexander Zverev had not lost in the first round of a Grand Slam in six years.

In that time, he had made three Grand Slam finals and six semi-finals.

But Zverev’s hopes of another deep run were dashed as he was stunned by world No. 72 Arthur Rinderknech.

The Frenchman didn’t drop serve once as he won 7-6(3) 6-7(8) 6-3 6-7(5) 6-4 in four hours and 40 minutes.

Zheng has not had much joy at Wimbledon.

For the third year in a row, the fifth seed lost in the first round, going out 7-5 4-6 6-1 against world No. 81 Katerina Siniakova on Tuesday.

“I should do better in my service game,” said Zheng afterwards.

“I mean, I don’t consider that such a challenge for me to play on grass. Maybe it’s I just should put my level a bit more better today because I give her a lot when it is my service game, especially when I was leading 5-3 in the first set. At that moment, my concentration were not there. Was a pity.

“Also in the third set I gave her so easy my service game. That’s the key on grass.”

Zheng’s recent Grand Slam record is as mixed as it comes: in her last seven major appearances, she has made the final of the 2024 Australian Open, made two quarter-finals, and on the other four occasions has failed to make it past the third round.

In the middle of that run, she also won Olympic gold.

Musetti managed a tour-high 12 wins on grass last season, including a run to the Wimbledon semi-finals.

But his hopes of another deep run came to an early end as he was upset by qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili in four sets.

“Really bad day at the office,” said seventh seed Musetti, who had not played since losing in the French Open semi-finals due to a leg injury.

“I came here at the last minute and of course, I didn’t have many good feelings with my game and honestly, the physical side and energy and whatever it takes to play a match like this.

“I was struggling to feel comfortable on the court from the beginning, I was really losing focus and was not really reactive on the ball.

“Today felt like I had never played on this surface.”

Ninth seed Daniil Medvedev was one of the biggest casualties on the opening day as he lost to Benjamin Bonzi in four sets.

Medvedev has made the semi-finals at Wimbledon the last two seasons but appeared frustrated as he was bounced out by world No. 64 Bonzi.

“Surprised by his level,” admitted Medvedev afterwards.

“I would be surprised if you find a match of him playing like this (in) any other match this year. I’m surprised he did today. But it can happen.”

Former world No. 1 Medvedev is currently projected to fall to No. 14 in the world rankings after Wimbledon.

Eighth seed Holger Rune could not hide his disappointment after losing in five sets to qualifier Nicolas Jarry.

Rune won the first two sets but then slipped to a 4-6 4-6 7-5 6-3 6-4 defeat.

Afterwards, he was asked whether the hot conditions played a part in the result: “Not at all. I mean, if I play normal, I’m beating him nine out of 10 times, with all respect for Nicolas Jarry.

“Obviously today didn’t make it a lot easier with my knee, but yeah, it was not great.”

Rune said he started to feel the knee issue in the fourth set of the match.

Ninth seed Paula Badosa had one of the trickiest opening-round matches against home hope and British No. 2 Katie Boulter.

Boulter only just missed out on being seeded for Wimbledon and pulled off a three-set win to reach the second round.

“Centre Court Wimbledon, as a Brit, against a top-10 player, for me doesn’t get that much better,” said Boulter.

“It is one of the reasons why I do play tennis, to win matches like that, and to have a go at the best in the world.”

“I’ve played a lot of matches recently where I’ve started out great and then kind of let it slip,” she said.

“I played a game like that at Queen’s, which hurt me a lo,t so I just tried to compete, fight and hope for the best today. I had to hope that she missed and keep pushing myself to be positive.

“I had to keep going after the ball and hoping that it would happen – and today it actually did happen, so I’m thrilled.”