Casper Ruud became the seventh of the top 11-ranked male players to be out of the grass-court Grand Slam after losing to Ugo Humbert of France 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 on Wednesday in the second round. The third-ranked Djokovic, No. 4 Nadal, No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas and No. 7 Carlos Alcaraz are the only players in the top 11 remaining in the draw.
Djokovic is looking for his 4th straight title at the All England Club, beat Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 to reach the third round. Nadal advanced to the second round on Tuesday.
Top-ranked Daniil Medvedev is out because of a ban on Russians over the war in Ukraine, No. 2 Alexander Zverev is injured, No. 8 Andrey Rublev of Russia is also banned, No. 9 Felix Auger-Aliassime and No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz lost, and No. 11 Matteo Berrettini withdrew after testing positive for COVID-19.
In the women's tournament, second-seeded Anett Kontaveit and 2017 Wimbledon champion Garbiñe Muguruza were also eliminated. Kontaveit lost to Juke Niemeier of Germany 6-4, 6-0, while the ninth-seeded Muguruza was beaten by Greet Minnen 6-4, 6-0. Kontaveit said she had COVID-19 in recent months and has struggled to get her energy back.
“I had it a couple, two months ago, I think, or something like that. Then I tried to come back very quickly. I started training. It was low intensity, but I was still training every day. I think that was where I went wrong,” the 26-year-old Estonian said. “Just thinking back at it, I probably should have given myself more time to recover.”
Among the winners were No. 6 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, who beat Tereza Martincova 7-6 (1), 7-5 in a match that started Tuesday, No. 8 Jessica Pegula of the United States and No. 12 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia. Ruud was making his third appearance at the All England Club. His victory over Albert Ramos-Vinolas on Monday was his first at the grass-court Grand Slam.
He became the first Norwegian player to reach a Grand Slam final when he made the championship match at Roland Garros, but he lost to Nadal in straight sets. He had withdrawn from the Australian Open with an ankle injury.
No. 23 Frances Tiafoe of the United States, No. 25 Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia and No. 32 Oscar Otte of Germany all advanced to the third round.
(Inputs PTI)
