Wimbledon: Five Things We Learned On Day 2

1) Serena Williams no longer “plays her way into” slams. Serena Williams, who has suffered through several slow starts in the early rounds of big tournaments, came out of the gates flying at Wimbledon 2010. She opened with a bagel, and eventually closed out the match 6-0, 6-4 with a decisive second set win that really was nowhere near as close as the score would indicate. Serena now boasts an incredible 43-0 career record in the first round of slams (a record that is followed nicely by her 41-1 career record in the second round). Serena is expected to be one of the players in action when the Queen visits on Thursday, which is only fitting as she’s the closest thing tennis has had to a female monarch over the last ten years.

2) Maria Sharapova still knows how to deliver a beatdown. Maria Sharapova entered this tournament with a lot of question marks surrounding her game, and her serve in particular. But she delivered the most dominating performance of the young tournament in her first round match, drubbing lucky loser Anastasia Pivovarova 6-1, 6-0. The one game Sharapova did lose was likely out of mercy, as Sharapova is the rare player on the record as saying she will lose a game out of pity to break up an embarrassing double bagel. Pivovarova’s name is a lot of fun to say, her game has been less than impressive lately. She was double bageled in her last round of qualifying, which means that she has won only one game in her last four sets. That’s just embarrassing.

3) Samantha Stosur’s power does not translate to grass… Samantha Stosur became the second top eight seed to exit the Ladies’ Singles draw, losing to qualifier Kaia Kanepi 6-4, 6-4. Stosur was expected by many experts to have a very successful Wimbledon, but her game still just doesn’t work on grass. The ball bounces too low for her to get any real topspin on it, and the top spin she does get is not picked up by the grass on the other side of the net, either. Her kick serve doesn’t kick, and her subpar movement is generally more exposed. Kanepi, a former grand slam quarterfinalist, is stronger than your average qualifier, but its still not a good loss for a player with aspirations to make the top five by the end of the year. Her loss combined with Francesca Schiavone losing on Day 1 means that there will be no French Open finalist in the second round of Wimbledon for the first time ever.

4) …But Rafael Nadal learned how to translate his. Just as his English has improved in recent years, so has Rafael Nadal’s play at England’s biggest sporting event. His groundstrokes are flatter and closer to the lines, making for much quicker points. Nadal managed to play first strike, punch-for-punch tennis for an entire match against the equally aggressive Kei Nishikori, and won decisively. Nadal is going to need to be just as aggressive against his next opponent, big-hitting Dutchman Robin Haase.