In the first round, 21 seeds fell.

It’s been two days of Wimbledon and already an unprecedented 11 men and 10 women seeded players are out of the penultimate Grand Slam with the 32-seed system. With tennis set to move to 16 seeds from 2019 onwards – a decision still questioned by many - it is ironic that the grass-court Grand Slam has seen a surge in upsets already.

The logic behind the change is to make the first week of Majors more competitive, and thereby more watchable. Don’t let the top dogs cruise by giving them much-lower ranked opponents, let the top 5 play someone in the top 30 early. However, given how the early matches have played out both at Wimbledon and French Open before that (except the men’s champion) there has been plenty of entertainment and high-quality tennis early on.

This is the casualty list after the first two days of Wimbledon.

Monday:

  1. #6 Grigor Dimitrov lost to Stan Wawrinka, 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-7(5), 4-6
  2. #16 Borna Coric lost to Daniil Medvedev, 6-7(6), 2-6, 2-6
  3. #23 Richard Gasquet lost to Gael Monfils, 6-7(6), 5-7, 4-6
  4. #28 Filip Krajinovic lost to Nicolas Jarry, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7(5), 4-6
  5. #4 Sloane Stephens lost to Donna Vekic, 1-6, 3-6
  6. #5 Elina Svitolina lost to Tatjana Maria, 6-7(3), 6-4, 1-6
  7. #16 Coco Vandeweghe lost to Katerina Siniakova, 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-8
  8. #19 Magdalena Rybarikova lost to Sorana Cirstea, 5-7, 3-6
  9. #32 Leonardo Mayer lost to Jan-Lennard Struff, 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 6-7(5), 1-6
  10. #21 Anastasija Sevastova lost to Camila Giorgi, 1-6, 6-2, 4-6
  11. #31 Zhang Shuai lost to Andrea Petkovic, 4-6, 6-4, 2-6

Tuesday:

  1. #8 Petra Kvitova lost 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 to Aliaksandra Sasnovich
  2. #6 Caroline Garcia lost to Belinda Bencic 7-6, 6-3
  3. #7 Dominic Thiem retires down 6-4, 7-5, 2-0 to Marcos Baghdatis
  4. #10 David Goffin lost 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 to Maatt Ebden
  5. #18 Jack Sock lost 6-7 (5/7), 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 Matteo Berrettini
  6. #24 Maria Sharapova lost to Vitalia Diatchenko 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/3), 6-4
  7. #20 Pablo Carreño-Busta lost to Radu Albot 3-6, 6-0, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 6-1
  8. #29 Marco Cecchinato lost to Alex De Minaur 6-4, 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/5), 6-4
  9. #30 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova lost to Hsieh Su-Wei 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
  10. #30 Fernando Verdasco lost to Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-3

Extraordinary, but not astounding

This is especially true in the women’s draw. As of Tuesday, four of the top eight seeds are out of Wimbledon. That is one half of a quarter-final draw. And we have not even reached the second round yet.

This is just the third Major in the Open Era in which four Top 10 women’s seeds have lost their opening matches after 1994 French Open and 2015 US Open.

That the women’s draw is unpredictable and competitive is an established fact as The Field’s preview stated. Take the first-round clash between former finalists Angelique Kerber and Vera Zvonareva, for instance. Despite the German’s 7-5, 6-3 win, it was a hard-fought battle. Even Serena Williams had to dig deep to beat Aranxta Rus.

But while the string of upsets in the first round this year are extraordinary, very few have been astounding given the level of competition.

Reigning US Open champion and French Open runner up Sloane Stephens lost to Donna Vekic, someone who has been steadily improving her game, especially on grass. The American hasn’t done well at Wimbledon and made too many errors to bow out. Fifth seed Elina Svitolina fell to Tatjana Maria, another mother on tour.

Maria, whose daughter Charlotte was born in 2013, was building on her recent title run at the grass-court Mallorca Open, as opposed to the Ukrainian who lost in the Birmingham quarters. Garcia was beaten by Belinda Bencic, who is a former Top 10 player and has stunned seed in the opening round of a Major the second time this year (after Venus Williams in Australia.)

But these were close match-ups, unlike the biggest casualty of the day – 2011 and 2014 champion Kvitova crashing out with a bagel in the decider.

Consistent Kvitova’s Grand Slam jinx continues

Pre-tournament favourite Kvitova came into Wimbledon as the most successful player this year with five titles from five tour finals, the recent being the defence at Birmingham. She pulled out of Eastbourne with a hamstring injury, but on Tuesday, looked more mentally out of the game.

World no 50 Sasnovich had not won a single match on grass this season, but went toe-to-toe with the Czech keeping her big serve under pressure throughout.

She had four break chances in her first three games and finally got it at 4-3. Serving for the set, she saw off a breakpoint and Kvitova’s unforced errors did the rest.

Kvitova, the three-set veteran, was never allowed to settle down in the third as Czech Republic looked both desperate and so mentally tuned out and her opponent ultimately bageled her.

Sasnovich , took all the chances on offer and rattled Kvitova with her variety. For the Czech, it was an extension of her Grand Slam jinx. Since her 2014 title here, she hasn’t reached a semi-final. And in her last six Majors since her return from horrific hand injury, she hasn’t made it past the quarters in five, despite her stunning consistency on the tour.

The other big name to exit was 2004 champion Sharapova, who clocked her earliest exit at a Slam since a first round defeat at the 2010 Australian Open, despite leading for most of the match.

Playing on grass for the first time since 2015 Wimbledon, she played a good game, but fell short at the big moments. The injury-plagued qualifier Russian qualifier didn’t let up on her aggression and rallied to send back everything, despite needing treatment on her back on three occasions. It was the former champion’s intensity that began to drop as the long-drawn match ultimately ended in an unhappy return, slipping to her first ever opening round defeat at the All England Club where she first burst upon the scene in 2003.

Wednesday will see the second-round matches begin, starting with the thrilling clash between Victoria Azarenka and Karolina Pliskova. No matter the result, there will be several more fireworks in store.