Roger Federer survived a tough opening-round test at Wimbledon on Tuesday, advancing via walkover after his opponent, Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, was injured while holding a lead of two sets to one and retired a few games later.
Mannarino, playing on his 33rd birthday, won the second and third sets before withdrawing with a leg injury. He was behind 4-2 in the fourth set when he slipped on the slick grass and fell, grabbing his right knee in pain. He limped through two more games before reluctantly calling it quits on the second point of the fifth set. The score: 6-4, 6-7 (3), 3-6, 6-2.
Federer was sheepish about winning.
“Not like this, please,” he told the crowd. “Look, he could have won the match at the end. Obviously he was the better player.”
An erratic forehand plagued Federer and he flirted with losing in the opening round at a Grand Slam for the first time since 2003. He committed four unforced errors with his forehand in the tiebreaker alone, including a shank.
Even so, the eight-time Wimbledon champion improved to 7-0 against Mannarino.
In the match that followed on Centre Court, Serena Williams was forced to retire in the first set after she hurt her left leg by slipping during a point, a sudden end to her latest bid for a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title.
Federer’s reaction when he found out what happened to Williams? “Oh my God, I can’t believe it,” he said, surely articulating a common sentiment.
Novak Djokovic fell twice in the first set of his first-round victory Monday in the main stadium, too.
Rain interrupted play for the second day in a row, but matches continued on the two courts with retractable roofs.
“I do feel it feels a tad more slippery, maybe, under the roof,” Federer said. “I don’t know if it’s just a gut feeling. You do have to move very, very carefully out there. If you push too hard in the wrong moments, you do go down. I do feel it’s drier during the day. With the wind and all that stuff, it takes the moist out of the grass. But this is obviously terrible.”
Earlier Tuesday, Alexander Zverev had 20 aces and only 18 unforced errors as he swept qualifier Tallon Griekspoor in the first round, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1. The result was a big improvement for Zverev after losing to a qualifier at Wimbledon in 2018 and 2019.
Zverev is seeded fourth but is only 9-5 at the All England Club.
Zhizhen Zhang, the first man to represent China in the main draw at Wimbledon during the Open era, was beaten by Antoine Hoang of France, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2.
In the final set, Zhang struggled with his serve, while Hoang had an 11-4 edge in winners. Zhang, 24, won three matches to qualify. He failed in three previous attempts to qualify at Grand Slam tournaments.
Sebastian Korda, 20, made his Wimbledon debut and upset No. 15-seeded Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5).
Korda is ranked a career-high 50th, and he added momentum to his breakout year by beating a top-20 player at a Grand Slam for the first time. De Minaur, a 22-year-old Australian, was coming off his first tour-level grass title, at Eastbourne.
No. 9 Diego Schwartzman and No. 26 Fabio Fognini also advanced on Day 2.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.