By Alan Baldwin
LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) - Fourth seed Ben Shelton accidentally hit a ballboy with a stinging ace and then felt plenty of pain himself as the highest-ranked player to fall in the men's first round draw at Wimbledon on Tuesday.
"Tough loss. One of the toughest losses I've taken," said the top-ranked American after Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen, 140th in the world, prevailed 6-4 3-6 6-7(8) 6-2 7-6 (11-9) in a Court Two match lasting nearly 4-1/2 hours.
"I feel like it was an uphill
battle all day today."
It was the first time Shelton had been dumped out of the third grand slam of the year at the first hurdle and, with champion Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic in the other side of the draw, it was a big missed opportunity.
"I came in playing really good tennis. I didn't even think I played a poor match today. Things just didn't go my way," said the Australian Open quarter-finalist, whose ace hit the ballboy in the midriff during the third set.
WINS FOR FRITZ, ANISIMOVA AND KEYS
Shelton, who put his hand up and checked the ballboy was OK, moved 8-5 up in the final tiebreak and had a match point at 9-8 but then squandered the chance.
"I don't know if I have a heart any more. I think it bounced out of my body but I'm here, I played until the last ball," said Virtanen.
If there was any consolation for Shelton it was that his defeat was hardly the biggest headline of the day involving an American player.
That honour went to U.S. great Serena Williams who was making her Centre Court return as wildcard in the women's draw at the age of 44 and in her first competitive singles match since the 2022 U.S. Open.
There were mixed fortunes for the others in action, with Taylor Townsend taking third seed and defending champion Iga Swiatek to three sets before the Pole won 6-1 2-6 6-3.
Men's sixth seed Taylor Fritz, last year's semi-finalist, beat Serbian "lucky loser" Dusan Lajovic 6-3 6-4 6-3 while women's sixth seed Amanda Anisimova, the 2025 finalist, beat North Macedonia's Lina Gjorcheska 6-3 6-2.
Robin Montgomery lost in three sets to Italy's 2024 Wimbledon finalist and 13th seed Jasmine Paolini while Caty McNally went out 5-7 3-6 to Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse and Sofia Kenin lost in straight sets to Croatian Petra Marcinko.
Madison Keys, the 26th seed in the women's draw, came back from an opening set down to beat Kayla Day 6-7(5) 6-4 6-3 in an all-American clash.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Alison Williams)
