By Richard Pagliaro
(June 22, 2010) Monday was a day of drama at Wimbledon as two of the top three seeds — No. 1 Roger Federer and No. 3 Novak Djokovic — survived taxing five-set tests and reigning Roland Garros champion Francesca Schiavone, the No. 5 seed, departed the draw in defeat at the hands of Vera Dushevina.
Opening day offered hopes of upset, but the elite restored order for seeds on Tuesday.
Reigning champion Serena Williams, 2008 champion Rafael Nadal, 2004 winner Maria Sharapova and fourth-seeded Scot Andy Murray all looked sharp in rolling into the second round.
Here's a recap of some Wimbledon Day Two highlights:
Women's Upset: Estonian qualifier Kaia Kanepi swept sixth-seeded Samantha Stosur, 6-4, 6-4.
Men's Upset: World No. 80 Fabio Fognini took down eighth-seeded Fernando Verdasco in four sets — less than a month after he surprised former French Open semifinalist Gael Monfils at Roland Garros. Lukas Lacko, a 73rd-ranked Slovakian, posted his first career Wimbledon win with a four-set triumph over 2006 semifinalist Marcos Baghdatis.
Women's Stat: Serena Williams hit 15 aces and won all 27 points on her first serve in raising her record to 43-0 in Grand Slam first-round matches. French Open finalist Samantha Stosur suffered her fourth first-round exit in eight Wimbledon appearances.
Men's Stat: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Robert Kendrick combined for 47 aces in the 10th-seeded Frenchman's four-set win. Rafael Nadal is 20-2 in his last 22 Wimbledon matches.
Women's Commentator Quote: "Victoria Azarenka is a vuvuzela with feet" — ESPN's Mary Carillo.
Men's Commentor Quote: "With a name like (Sergiy Stakhovsky) he should be playing in the NHL...There are three Ukranian men in the top 75..." — ESPN's Brad Gilbert.
Women's Player Quote: "Well, we dubbed (my outfit) Strawberries and Cream. Strawberries, is that the correct enunciation of it? I don't have a good British accent. The red is strawberries and the white is cream. It's not like a pure white; it's more of a cream. Also the red kind of symbolizes a lot of things I do in Africa, along with a lot of the work, like the red laces. Everybody that buys a pair can pretty much save a life in Africa." — Serena Williams.
Men's Player Quote: "It's amazing you played tennis because I can still hear you." — a frustrated James Blake complaining to ESPN analyst Pam Shriver that he could hear her courtside commentary on court.
Men's Player Quote: "To be honest, it's almost embarrassing to go out and play a Grand Slam match like that. Maybe it says to me that I came back too soon, or maybe I'm just too far away where I think I need to be...The knee is not great. If it doesn't get better soon, I'm not sure how much longer I want to play in pain. I'm doing my best. We're doing everything we can. It's just getting pretty frustrating. We're trying everything, so hopefully soon we'll find the solution and make it so it's better." — a frustrated James Blake on playing with a knee injury.