London - 01/07

Good morning and welcome back to TIE-Breakfast: all the tennis you need at breakfast.

Ace Cream's daily newsletter during Masters 1000s and Grand Slams, every morning at 8:30.

Today is Wednesday 1 July, in London it's 07:30 and there are 18 degrees. All right, let's go.

Today at breakfast

• 🇮🇹 Sinner defends his title in five sets, with a bleeding foot and too many open questions
• 🇮🇹 Paolini recovers from 0-6 and flies into the second round: a mentality worth framing
• 🇮🇹 Berrettini beats Wawrinka in the emotional farewell of the Swiss champion to grass
• 🎾 Serena Williams returns after four years and loses: the Centre Court welcomed her, Joint beat her
• 🇮🇹 Sinner-Borges today on Centre Court: the defending champion's second step
• 🇷🇸 Djokovic-Tsitsipas in the second round: a final ten years late

WHAT HAPPENED:

🇮🇹 Sinner Defends His Title In Five Sets, With More Shadows Than Certainties

Jannik Sinner beat Miomir Kecmanovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-2, 6-3 in three and a half hours, opening his title defence with a match that said many things, not all of them reassuring. Fifty-two unforced errors, a dangerous slip with a bleeding foot, a third set lost in a tiebreak — but also 31 aces and 72 winners, and ultimately a five-set victory that hadn't come in over two years. Sinner arrived from a Roland Garros that ended in the second round with dizziness issues, and the opening of the tournament seemed to reflect that moment: beautiful and unstable at the same time. The world number one is here, but how much he's truly back remains to be seen.

🇮🇹 Paolini Recovers From 0-6 And Flies Into The Second Round

Jasmine Paolini lost the first set 0-6 against Robin Montgomery and then won the match 6-4, 7-5 in the next two. There are players that kind of first set would have unsettled for the rest of the match; Paolini instead found a way to stay connected, save three break points at 4-4 in the third set and close with a break that seemed almost inevitable. It's the kind of victory that says more about mental resilience than a clean two-set win ever could. The same positive day for Tyra Caterina Grant, Italian born in 2008, who on Court 3 beat Katie Boulter — one of Britain's last hopes — with aggressive tennis that left little doubt about her adaptability to grass: her first career win in a Slam main draw, at 18 years old.

🇮🇹 Berrettini-Wawrinka: The Grass Court Farewell

The most anticipated match of the first two days was Matteo Berrettini against Stan Wawrinka: four hours and twenty minutes, four sets, four tiebreaks, with the second reaching 18-16 after Wawrinka had six set points and Berrettini saved them all. Berrettini won 6-7(7), 7-6(16), 7-6(7), 7-6(5), but the scoreline only tells part of the story. Wawrinka, 41 years old and a wild card, had announced this would be his last Wimbledon. He left the court visibly moved, and Berrettini chased after him to hand him the match towel as a memento. "He's a legend, and he proved it today," said the Italian. "I couldn't have chosen a better farewell," replied Wawrinka. There are matches that live in memory not for their tactical significance but for what they carry with them, and this is one of those.

🎾 Serena Williams Returns And Loses: The Centre Court Welcomed Her, Joint Beat Her

Serena Williams lost 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-3 against Maya Joint, the twenty-year-old Australian, in her first singles match in four years. She was 44 years old, had a wild card, and the entire history of women's tennis behind her. Joint, who arrived on the back of eleven consecutive losses, kept her nerve and won the third set after Williams had actually pushed the match to a tiebreak in the second, saving a match point with a winning serve. It's hard to read this defeat as a surprise — four years away from the circuit is a long time, and grass court preparation cannot be improvised — but the Centre Court crowd gave her the kind of reception reserved for those who are part of the history of the place. And at this Wimbledon, even in defeat, she still is.

WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY:

• 🇮🇹 Sinner (1) vs Nuno Borges — Centre Court, 14:30 Italian time. Second round, a rhythm test more than a real challenge: Borges is solid but not built to win on grass. Sinner needs a straightforward match after the complicated opener.
• 🇷🇸 Djokovic (7) vs Tsitsipas — Centre Court, following Sinner. Their fifteenth meeting, with Djokovic leading the head-to-head 12-2. Tsitsipas has slipped to 87th in the rankings, but on this surface and in this context the numbers mean little: it will be the most watched match of the day.
• 🎾 Krejčíková vs Andreeva (5) — Centre Court, between Sinner and Djokovic. The 2024 champion against the fifth seed and 2026 Roland Garros winner: a matchup that in another quarter of the draw could easily have been a semifinal.
• 🇺🇸 Gauff (7) vs Sierra — Court 1, 14:00 Italian time. Gauff is among the WTA favourites and needs to find consistency after a complicated 2025.
• 🇧🇷 Fonseca (24) vs De Jong — Court 3, 15:30 Italian time. The 19-year-old Brazilian is one of the most interesting stories on the men's side of the draw.
• 🇯🇵 Osaka (14) vs Gasanova — Court 2, 12:00 Italian time. Osaka on grass, after the difficulties of recent years: a match to watch.

Further reading

• Berrettini beats Wawrinka in his emotional farewell: the 18-16 tiebreak
• Paolini recovers from 0-6, Grant earns her first Slam win at 17
• Serena Williams falls at Wimbledon after four-year singles hiatus
• Sinner survives scary fall and Kecmanovic in dramatic five-setter
• Tsitsipas: "Free from anxiety and stress" on the eve of Djokovic

Enjoy your breakfast and have a great day.

See you tomorrow at 08:30 with TIE-Breakfast