Belarus's Aryna Sabalenka returns the ball to Romania's Monica Niculescu during their first round women's singles match on day one of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Monday June 28
No. 2-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus is this year's first winner at Wimbledon. She swept her opening match against qualifier Monica Niculescu, 6-1, 6-4.
They played under the retractable roof on Court 1 while the start of matches on outside courts was delayed by rain.
Sabalenka has won a tour-leading 30 matches this year and her seeding is her highest at a major tournament. She dominated from the start against Niculescu, who had so much trouble holding she even tried an underhand serve.
Wimbledon is back and ready to start after being canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic.
While those are signs of a return to normalcy, a reminder that the coronavirus is still an issue came on the eve of the grass-court Grand Slam tournament. The only seeded woman from Britain, 2017 Wimbledon semifinalist Johanna Konta, had to pull out of the draw Sunday night because a member of her team tested positive for COVID-19.
