2024 Wimbledon: Casper Ruud, Grigor Dimitrov and Denis Shapovalov all through with ease in straight sets

The opening stanza of 2024 Wimbledon has begun with Casper Ruud, Grigor Dimitrov and Denis Shapovalov all through at SW19 among a smattering of names already in the winner's circle as Carlos Alcaraz takes to the court for his opener against Mark Lajal.

Ruud in particular was impressive given that he has a known hatred of grass and spent most of last year's tournament searching where he could watch musician The Weeknd on his European Tour. He also previously quipped that grass is only good for golf which is why he spends his pre Wimbledon preparation on a golf course rather than warm-ups.

He said though after he lost out at Roland Garros that he would be taking this juncture of the season seriously albeit he didn't play a warm-up so whether he would was a guess left until today. But he was superb as he took down Alex Bolt in straight sets. He really found his tennis against the qualifier after a narrow first set which saw Ruud snatch it in a tie-break. For many Ruud was on upset watch in this first tie, but he proved that like Medvedev and clay there could still be life in the grass yet for the eighth seed. He now faces Fabio Fognini who was another winner this morning.

As was Borna Coric in three sets against a familiar face to Ruud in Felipe Meligeni Alves 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 for the Croat. Jan-Lennard Struff prevailed in four sets against Fabian Marozsan. Sporting a new bleach blonde set of hair amid his backwards cap routine, the German won through 6-4, 6-7, 6-2, 6-3 and faces the winner of Zhizhen Zhang and Maxime Janvier. Looking likely to be the former given that he is two sets up.

Two-time semi-finalist Denis Shapovalov was also another impressive winner against 19th seed Nicolas Jarry. The Chilean has been unwell coming into this tournament and whether he would play or not was a whole different story. But that doesn't take away from a superb win for Shapovalov for his confidence after a long time in the tennis doldrums. He prevailed 6-1, 7-5, 6-4. Next in his sights is Daniel Altmaier or Arthur Fery. He sits in the Jannik Sinner quarter. In actuality it was Grigor Dimitrov who was the first men's winner of the championships.

He saw off Dusan Lajovic 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 and quipped afterwards the irony of the fine wine statement put to him as he's never touched a drop of alcohol. But Dimitrov has been heroic for some time now and continues his roll as the tenth seed at SW19. After a landmark 12 months and a second renaissance, he finds himself into a tie now with Juncheng Shang (Jerry for short) who breezed past Cristian Garin. As ever Wimbledon is frenetic and on the opening two days at least, there will be a lot more winners. But for now there has been little shocks for a few players who perhaps were earmarked for them. Watch this space.