As I do most years, I have taken some time off work over the Wimbledon fortnight to be able to absorb as much tennis as possible, and boy what a first week of grass court action we have had. I paid quite a lot more attention to Wimbledon Qualifying this year as well, so was going into this week with plenty of tennis activity already in my mind, and lots of names to look out for.

Printing the draws, marking up the matches that were must watch, and getting to grips with just how many streams were available on the iPlayer, all have contributed to making this week heavenely. And here are some thoughts on what we’ve witnessed so far:

• We must start with the upsets on the women’s side of the draw. First Rybakina went out, which was a shame because I was hoping she was going to be able to challenge for the number one spot this week. Then Swiatek beaten by Eala, who I’ve been keeping my eye on since last year but was not expecting to achieve what she has so far. I thought it was fascinating that Swiatek said she was caught out because the serves were so slow! Who would have thought playing slower could be an advantage?
• And then literally breaking news, I’ve just witnessed Sabalenka be beaten by Osaka. I was looking forward to this match up, because it felt like a blockbuster and boy was it. I have nothing against Sabalenka but I was really hoping she might get beaten early here, because her game is pretty dull to watch and as mentioned above, I’m hoping someone can challenge for the number one spot. When she went down a set to Osaka, I thought ‘we’ve seen this before, she’ll come roaring back.’ But she didn’t! This was a spectacular match, made even more so because Sabalenka didn’t crumble, she was outplayed. Finally we have at least one player who can match up to that power on the other side of the net.
• Other notable early fallers include Andreeva (I was glad about that one, not a huge fan of her and the way she threw that racquet was outrageous), Svitolina (so disappointed, but at least we were guaranteed a Ukranian going through) and Anismova (beaten by her compatriat but at least she got to put to bed some of the demons from last year’s final).
• On the men’s side, things don’t seem quite so dramatic yet. Fery is the Last Remaining Brit, as he shall forever now be called. Dimitrov is doing a great job coming back from injury. But all eyes on Sinner and Zverev really, that’s surely where we are heading.
• I was a bit frustrated with how negative everyone was about the British performance at Wimbledon this year, although granted the results leave a lot to be desired. Two high profile withdrawals due to injury (so many injuries in tennis at the moment), two big losses where there probably shouldn’t have been (Norrie and Boulter), but everyone else wasn’t really expected to do that well. You can’t hand out wild cards and then be annoyed they don’t win against players ranked so much higher than them.
• And finally, we can’t review the first week of Wimbledon without discussing Serena. It was so amazing to see her back, but it hasn’t been the return she wanted at all. Maya Joint won their first round tussle (Joint another one I’ve been keeping my eye on since last year), and then injuring her knee so being unable to participate in doubles with Venus. That’s disappointing because I desperately wanted to see the sisters playing together again. There’s no word on any future plans at the moment, so all we can do is cross our fingers and hope the stars align to make it happen elsewhere. Maybe the US Open would be a fitting location for the big reunion.

I’m very excited to be going into the second week of Wimbledon, there’s still plenty of intriguing match-ups to come and now the singles matches are fewer in number, more attention can be paid to each one. I’ll be back here same time next week to discuss the winners! If I had to put my money on it, I’d say Sinner on the men’s side and for the women… Osaka stands a great chance after what I’ve just witnessed!