London [UK], July 2 : Seven-time winner Novak Djokovic kicked off his Wimbledon 2025 campaign in style as he registered a hard-fought win against France's Alexandre Muller in the first round of the competition on Tuesday.
In the first round of Wimbledon 2025, Djokovic defeated Muller 6-1, 6-7(7), 6-2, 6-2, a match that lasted 3 hours and 19 minutes. He will now face Dan Evans in the next round of the ongoing tournament.
After his first-round victory, Djokovic revealed that he had been struggling with a stomach bug during the game.
"To be quite frank, I went from feeling my absolute best for a set and a half to feeling my absolute worst for about 45 minutes. Whether it's a stomach bug - I don't know what it is - but I struggled with that. The energy kicked back in after some doctor's miracle pills, and I managed to finish the match on a good note," Djokovic explained as quoted by the tournament's official website.
"I honestly wasn't thinking about [retiring] and taking that as an option. I knew something was off with the stomach, so hopefully, when that calms down, the energy will come back. That's what happened," he added.
Earlier in the day, the world number one Italian superstar Jannik Sinner had a brilliant start to his Wimbledon campaign, making light work of his opponent Luca Nardi.
Sinner swept away the challenge from Nardi by 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 within just an hour and 48 minutes, unlike his rival and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, who had a gruelling five-set battle with compatriot Fabio Fognini.
Such was his game that he did not face any break points and converted five of the 13 break points he earned.
Sinner's next challenge in round two will be Aleksandar Vukic, who defeated Tseng Chun-Hsin 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(5).
Also, in a massive shocker, Arthur Rinderknech had his first top five win ever, knocking out third seed Alexander Zverev in an all-out five set match by a 7-6(3), 6-7(8), 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4 win in four hours and 44 minutes.
Zverev, who had entered Wimbledon with a 6-2 grass record this season, including a finals appearance in Stuttgart and a semifinal finish in Halle, but he could not deliver as per the hype.
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