Wawrinka stunned as Murray, Nadal stroll

Venus Williams wept at Wimbledon over the “devastation” of a fatal road accident for which she is facing legal action while there were emotional comeback wins for Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka. “I apologise for this”, said world number 49 Medvedev who had also been docked a point by Alves as his 2-0 final set lead melted into a 5-2 deficit.

Nadal is bidding to record his 850th tour-level match-win and become just the seventh player in history to reach the landmark.

He had struggled to find any sort of rhythm and was clearly bothered by the niggling knee problem he said had been dogging him since the end of past year.

“As I said, in the heat of the moment, I did a stupid thing”.

Medvedev entered Wimbledon having surged into the ATP top 50 this year.

“Apparently”, he said with a grin, “grass is not the best surface for my knee”.

Rafa Nadal moved seamlessly from months of claycourt success to a satisfyingly smooth first-round victory on grass as he opened his Wimbledon campaign with a commanding 6-1 6-3 6-2 victory over Australian John Millman yesterday. The 21-year-old Russian will face Ruben Bemelmans in the second round on Wednesday.

Mobbed by dozens on Court 12, Nishikori started brutally – with a backhand victor down the line – and got better as the contest went on. Wawrinka, holding a break point, ran around his backhand to rip a forehand return victor off of a Medvedev kick serve. The German World No. 97 came back from a set and a break down to beat Portugal’s Joao Sousa 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, 6-4.

But Wawrinka could not sustain his momentum.

Medvedev stuck to his game plan. Medvedev showed great touch and variety from all sides of the court.

Wawrinka was seeded No. 5 and ranked No. 3.

The burly Swiss appeared to be hampered by a knee injury, as he faded quickly in the fourth set. Daniil Medvedev remained in control throughout the majority of the match, keeping Wawrinka on the defensive.

The Russian was losing 3-1 in the first set but, as he looked to regain his momentum, the umpire, Sandy French, called his forehand wide.

In Court 1, Japanese Ken Nishikori takes on Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky in the first match at Court 1.

He knelt down to kiss the grass after clinching the biggest win of his career.

He said: “I don’t actually remember what I said. I’m not in a lot of pain when I’m walking, that’s for sure”. I was feeling confident. Obviously, probably not against him, but some opponents if I played them today, I probably still could have won. “I’m going to pass”.