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Rafael Nadal didn’t have things all his own way Tuesday, but he stepped up when needed to reach the Wimbledon second round for the 14th time.

Competing on grass for the first time since 2019, the Spaniard showcased his trademark fighting spirt to overcome a tricky test from Francisco Cerundolo, advancing 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 after three hours and 36 minutes.

"First of all, all the credit to Fran. I think he started to play great and [was] a very tough opponent," Nadal said in his on-court interview. "It's obvious that for me it's been three years without being here, without playing on this amazing surface, so very happy to be back. For me, it's always amazing playing here on this court and I can't thank everyone enough for the support."

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In front of a packed crowd on Centre Court, Nadal survived a mid-match comeback from the Argentine, who was making his debut at The Championships. After winning the first two sets, the 36-year-old suddenly found himself a break down in the fourth set.

Nick Kyrgios did not earn many opportunities on Tuesday in his gruelling first-round match at Wimbledon. But when the Australian did, he took full advantage.

Kyrgios battled past home favourite Paul Jubb 3-6, 6-1, 7-5, 6-7(3), 7-5 to reach the second round at The Championships, converting five of his six break points. The No. 40 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings will next play 26th seed Filip Krajinovic or #NextGenATP Czech Jiri Lehecka.

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The 27-year-old is now 10-3 in five-set matches, including 5-0 at Wimbledon. He has not lost a first-round clash this season (8-0). Kyrgios let slip an opportunity to serve for the match at 5-3 in the deciding set, but quickly rebounded to clinch his victory after three hours and five minutes behind 30 aces and 67 winners overall.

Kyrgios, who made the quarter-finals at the All England Club as a 19-year-old, arrived at the third major of the season with plenty of matches after advancing to the semi-finals in Stuttgart in Halle. But the Australian warned he would need to maintain that form against Jubb, a wild card.

Andy Murray notched his 60th match win at Wimbledon on Monday, 17 years after his first. The two-time champion’s ability to adapt with the times has been key to his success over such a long period, something that was clearly demonstrated by his use of an underarm serve during his first-round victory against James Duckworth.

“He changed his return position,” said Murray in his post-match press conference. “That's why I did it. He was standing very close to return [initially], he was struggling a little bit on the first-serve return. So he stepped probably two meters further back. As soon as I saw him step further back, I threw the underarm serve in.

The Briton deployed the tactic when serving with a 2-1 lead in the third set against the World No. 74. Duckworth scampered forward and was able to return the ball but was subsequently undone by a Murray lob.

“I personally have no issue with players using it,” added Murray. “I never have. Certainly, more and more players have started returning from further, further behind the baseline now to give themselves an advantage to return.

“The underarm serve is a way of saying, if you're going to step back there, then I'm going to possibly throw that in.”

Matteo Berrettini, 2021 finalist, has withdrawn from Wimbledon after testing positive for COVID-19.

“I am heartbroken to announce that I need to withdraw from Wimbledon due to a positive COVID-19 test result,” wrote the 26-year-old via Instagram.

“I have had flu symptoms and been isolating the last few days. Despite symptoms not being severe, I decided it was important to take another test this morning to protect the health and safety of my fellow competitors and everyone else involved in the tournament.

“I have no words to describe the extreme disappointed I feel. The dream is over for this year, but I will be back stronger. Thank you for the support”

Maxime Cressy vividly remembers playing tennis on Sundays as a boy in France with his brothers Jonathan and Mathieu. When they were ready to leave the club, Maxime wanted to continue playing.

“I would always tell them, 'One more ball, one more ball.' That one more ball would turn out to be two more hours of playing tennis,” Cressy told ATPTour.com. “Over time they got sick of tennis because of me, because I was always demanding their time. With my brothers I was very competitive and wanted to be better than them. They grew tired of it!”

Jonathan and Mathieu are certainly proud of what their brother has become: one of the most dangerous players on the ATP Tour. On Tuesday, he will try to prove that against sixth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the first round of Wimbledon.

The American is a scary foe, especially on grass, because of his throwback serve-and-volley game. On his day, the 6’6” righty takes the racquet out of his opponents' hands. There is little they can do about a perfectly placed serve and a crisp volley into the open court. But if you ask Cressy what he wants fans to remember him for, it is not his unique game.

“I would want people to know me for my character, that I have resiliency. When things become difficult, I never give up. I always find a way,” Cressy said. “I’m the kind of person that will do anything in his power to find a solution towards where I want to be.”

There are few players who understand what Andy Murray has been through to return to the tennis court and compete at the highest level, but James Duckworth, who in January underwent hip surgery, is one of them. Although the resilient Australian put up a fight on Monday evening, it was the two-time Wimbledon champion who clawed into the second round.

After a slow start on Centre Court, Murray rallied past Duckworth 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 to advance at Wimbledon. The Scot will next play 20th seed John Isner, against whom he owns an 8-0 ATP Head2Head record.

"It was amazing to be back out here again with a full crowd," Murray said in his on-court interview. "Amazing atmosphere. Obviously I'm getting on a bit now, so I don't know how many more opportunities I [will] get to play on this court, so I want to make the most of every time I get to come out here now. Glad I managed to get through it and hopefully get another match on here in a couple of days."

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Murray has made slow, but steady progress since undergoing his second right hip surgery in 2019. Earlier this month, he returned for a week to the Top 50 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time since the week of 28 May 2018. The 35-year-old has shown good form, however, advancing to the final in Stuttgart, where he defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas and Nick Kyrgios.

Rafael Nadal will play at Wimbledon for the first time since 2019 Tuesday on Centre Court, while Stefanos Tsitsipas and Matteo Berrettini headline the men's singles action on Court 1. The complete bottom half of the draw is set for first-round action on the London lawns, with Felix Auger-Aliassime, Taylor Fritz, Diego Schwartzman, Denis Shapovalov, and #NextGenATP stars Holger Rune, Lorenzo Musetti and Jack Draper also in action. 

Top-half matches that were not completed on a rainy Monday will also be played.

ATPTour.com looks at some of the matches to watch on Day 2 at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

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[2] Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs. Francisco Cerundolo (ARG)

Nadal's stellar start to the 2022 season has put him in a new position at Wimbledon. For the first time, the Spaniard enters London half-way to the Grand Slam — winning all four majors in the same season. Nadal brings a 30-3 season record into the event, with four tour-level titles in tow.

Jannik Sinner scored a pair of firsts on Monday at Wimbledon with his 7-5, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 first-round victory against Stan Wawrinka. The 20-year-old Italian earned his first win in his second Wimbledon main-draw appearance, with the victory doubling as his first tour-level victory on grass. 

“It feels amazing, obviously," Sinner said of the milestone win on Court 2. "It took a little bit, but I’m happy to be in the second round here. Against Stan, it was a very tough match because he is an incredible champion and he showed it so many times. I wish him all the best to come back stronger.”

After both men traded crushing baseline blows throughout two tight sets, Sinner's agility and consistency proved the difference in the third and fourth sets as the 10th seed ran out a comfortable winner. 

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The Italian finished with 42 winners to 33 errors and improved his court coverage throughout the match despite a few slips. Wawrinka looked to step into the court often, but even when he did gain a positional advantage, Sinner's persistent retrieving allowed the Italian to keep his footing in the points.

Novak Djokovic found a fix for his on-court problems on Monday to clinch an opening-round win against Soonwoo Kwon at Wimbledon. Yet his seven-year-old Stefan isn’t so sure about the six-time champion’s everyday handyman skills.

The top seed posted a video via Instagram on Sunday of him and his team trying and failing to fix a broken trampoline, prompting Stefan to ask a question in the background: “How come you don’t know how to put together a trampoline and you are competing at Wimbledon?”

“I think you can't argue with a child's honesty and pure no-filter comments, right?” said Djokovic after his 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win against Kwon on Monday. “For him anyone playing in Wimbledon is a superhero. He did not only direct that to me but the entire team. For him, everyone in my team is playing in Wimbledon.

“He saw these big guys that have muscles, my fitness coach, tennis coach, and he couldn't understand how is it that we can't fix a trampoline and we're playing at Wimbledon. It was a really funny, funny comment.”

John Isner has already set one famous record at Wimbledon. He's now on the brink of making more history at the grass-court Grand Slam.

The American, who won an 11-hour, five-minute marathon against Nicolas Mahut in 2010, could set the world record for aces this fortnight. After firing 54 aces Monday in a five-set win over France's Enzo Couacaud, Isner's career count stands at 13,688 — just 40 aces shy of Ivo Karlovic's record of 13,728.

In a 6-7(6), 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory, Isner hit 97 winners (including aces) and 89 unreturned serves. He won 84 per cent of his first-serve points and was successful on 48 of his 68 net approaches, dropping serve just once in the contest. The match was played on Court 18, the site of his 2010 epic against France's Mahut. Isner served a single-match record 113 aces in that first-round meeting, which spanned three days.

The World No. 24 American could break the all-time ace record in the second round, where he will face the winner of the Centre Court matchup between Andy Murray and James Duckworth. Isner is competing at Wimbledon for the 13th time, with a run to the 2018 semi-finals his best result.

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Francisco Cerundolo can’t stop smiling as he looks across the lawns of Wimbledon ahead of the grass-court Grand Slam.

It is an expression that has been locked across the Argentine’s face since Friday, when he discovered that Spaniard Rafael Nadal would be his first-round opponent at The All England Lawn Tennis Club.

“I was happy and surprised when I saw the draw,” Cerundolo told ATPTour.com. “The day before, I told my coach I wanted to play Rafa or Novak [Djokovic] in this tournament. They are two of the greatest players in history. They are fairly old now and I don’t know how long they will be playing, so it is a good opportunity for me.

“I have always wanted to play Rafa, Novak and Roger [Federer]. So when I saw [I was drawn] against Rafa, I said to my coach ‘Let’s go!’. When I saw Nadal, I was happy.”

While the opportunity to play two-time champion Nadal will provide a memorable experience for Cerundolo, it also gives him the chance to show fans what he is capable of. The 24-year-old is currently at a career-high No. 41 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, having enjoyed a breakthrough season, which has seen him earn a career-best 12 tour-level wins.

One of the wildest matches of this Wimbledon might have already occurred on Day One.

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina let slip three match points in the third set against Hubert Hurkacz and later trailed by a break on two occasions in the fifth set, but the Spaniard battled into the second round 7-6(4), 6-4, 5-7, 2-6, 7-6(10-8).

“Really I don’t know how I won this match. He had in the fifth set [a] 5-4 [lead] and [he was] serving with the new balls. I was [thinking], ‘Okay, let’s put the return in and let’s see what happens,’” Davidovich Fokina said in his on-court interview as he laughed. “But I’m so happy for the win today because I was struggling a little bit. To beat Hurkacz on grass — he [made] the semi-final last year — it’s so much confidence to myself. I’m so happy.”

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For much of the deciding set, Davidovich Fokina was left shaking his head. This year’s Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters finalist had been up two sets to none and served for the match at 5-3 in the third with a 40/0 advantage. The Spaniard put three first serves into play on those points, but was unable to convert.

Carlos Alcaraz’s Wimbledon hopes hung by a thread on Monday evening. However, the 19-year-old survived to reach the second round at Wimbledon for the second time.

In a tight battle on Court 1, the 19-year-old rode out an attacking bombardment from Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff to advance 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 after a tense four hours and 14 minutes.

Competing for the second time at Wimbledon, Alcaraz raised his intensity and dug his heels in as he scampered around the baseline to hang in points, while he found moments of magic in the key moments to improve his five-set record to 5-1.

The Spaniard produced a stunning backhand passing shot at 0/2 in the fourth-set tie-break to keep himself in the match, before he raised the roof with his shot-making at the end of the fifth set to improve to 1-1 in his ATP Head2Head series with Stuff.

Alcaraz will next play Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor or Fabio Fognini as he aims to reach the third round at SW19 for the first time.

Before beginning his grass-court season, Nick Kyrgios returned to Australia for two months to recharge and spend time with his loved ones. The 27-year-old has wasted no time finding his form since returning to the Tour.

The Australian reached the semi-finals in Stuttgart and Halle to put himself in good position leading into Wimbledon.

“I’ve played a lot of matches. Had some great results. Beaten some really good players. I'm just happy where my level's at,” Kyrgios said. “I think I've had probably some of the best preparation I've had for a while on the grass. Load-wise I'm happy with the amount of tennis I played.”

Kyrgios admitted that it is “hard to find the balance between spending time with your family, friends, having that kind of normal lifestyle". That is why he returned home, so that when he did return to court, he would be ready to go and play his best.

“I know where my game's at. I know if I'm feeling confident, I'm playing well, I'm able to just light it up kind of whenever I want. But I've just got to pick and choose. I don't play that often,” Kyrgios said. “When I play now, I've got to make sure I'm having some good results, putting my best effort… I’m proud to be where I'm at at the moment.”

Carlos Alcaraz may have been a dominant force on the ATP Tour in 2022, but that does not mean the 19-year-old is afraid to seek help from his fellow players as and when required.

The Spaniard takes on Jan-Lennard Struff in the first round at Wimbledon on Monday. As he prepares for just the second tour-level grass-court tournament of his career, Alcaraz admitted he is happy to learn from others to make up for his relative inexperience on the surface.

“Of course. I try to watch the training of the best players,” said Alcaraz in his pre-tournament press conference on Sunday, shortly after hitting with British No. 2 Daniel Evans. “I think he [Evans] plays very well on grass. I'm trying to copy some things from the best [players].

“I always watch videos of [Roger] Federer, [Novak] Djokovic, Rafa [Nadal], Andy [Murray] as well. I try to copy moves and stuff from them.”

As a fellow Spaniard who also grew up playing predominantly on clay, two-time champion Nadal is a particularly important example for Alcaraz. The 19-year-old believes Nadal’s success on grass serves as an obvious example for him to follow.

Stefanos Tsitsipas’ Wimbledon preparations have been a success.

The Greek overcame Roberto Bautista Agut to capture his maiden tour-level title on grass at the Mallorca Championships on Saturday, meaning he arrives at The All England Lawn Tennis Club high on confidence and with matches in the bank.

“I think my preparations are good in terms of matches. That's what I wanted from the very beginning, to have a lot of matches on grass,” Tsitsipas said in his pre-tournament press conference on Sunday. “That's what I think I achieved in the last couple of weeks, to get as many matches on grass as possible.

“I think the first tournaments were probably not what I expected in terms of matches, but I managed to pick up quite fast in last week's performance in southern Europe.”

Prior to his triumph in Mallorca, Tsitsipas had held a 10-10 record on grass. However, the fourth seed revealed that his title run at the ATP 250 event came as no surprise to him due to his long-term belief that he was destined for success on the surface.

The 2022 grass-court season reaches its climax at the third Grand Slam of the year in London, where the top talent on the ATP Tour has assembled at Wimbledon. Six-time champion Novak Djokovic leads the field at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, where the Serbian is chasing his fourth consecutive crown.

Two-time champion Rafael Nadal seeks his third major title of the season, while 2021 finalist Matteo Berrettini arrives in London in red-hot form, having picked up back-to-back titles on the grass in Stuttgart and at The Queen’s Club.

Ninth seed Cameron Norrie leads British hopes, but the home fans will also have a two-time champion to support in Andy Murray.

ATPTour.com looks ahead at 10 things to watch at Wimbledon.

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Defending champion Novak Djokovic, #NextGenATP Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and home favourite Andy Murray kick off their campaigns at Wimbledon on Monday. The first-round action at the grass-court Grand Slam will also see Hubert Hurkacz, Jannik Sinner, Stan Wawrinka, Reilly Opelka and Cameron Norrie in action at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

ATPTour.com looks at some of the matches to watch on Day 1 in the UK capital.

View Schedule | View Singles Draw

[1] Novak Djokovic (SRB) vs. Soonwoo Kwon (KOR)

Djokovic opens proceedings on Centre Court with his second tour-level meeting against South Korean Soonwoo Kwon. Not only is the top seed defending his 2021 crown, but the six-time champion is also pursuing his fourth consecutive title at the grass-court major. That would draw him level with legendary American Pete Sampras.

"I would like to be in the [final] to eventually make history," said Djokovic at his pre-tournament press conference. "Pete Sampras winning his first Wimbledon was the first tennis match I ever saw on the TV. So of course, there is a lot of connection to this tournament. Pete has won it seven times... Hopefully I can do the same this year."

Never before has Rafael Nadal entered Wimbledon after winning the year's first two Grand Slam events. But with the 2022 Australian Open and Roland Garros titles in tow, a trophy in his 15th Wimbledon would put him on the brink of the Grand Slam — winning all four majors in the same year. That feat that has not been achieved in men's singles since Rod Laver in 1969.

Tennis fans and players alike have taken note of the 36-year-old's historic season, including many of the WTA's most popular players.

"He's done a lot in 2022. He's been busy," Serena Williams said Saturday in her Wimbledon pre-tournament press conference. "I've always been a Rafa fan... so obviously I'm always rooting for Rafa. He's been really inspiring in everything that he's done this year. And he has a lot more to do."

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Williams named one of her dogs after the Spaniard — Christopher Chip Rafael Nadal, a Yorkshire Terrier. The 40-year-old Williams, who is preparing for her first competitive singles match since last year's Wimbledon, is eager to join Nadal among this season's Grand Slam champions.

Despite his promising start to the grass season being cut short by an abdominal injury, Andy Murray is taking plenty of belief from his recent performances as he prepares to open his 2022 Wimbledon campaign against James Duckworth.

“I think I showed a couple weeks ago [in Stuttgart] that there was still good tennis left in me,” said Murray in his pre-tournament press conference in London on Saturday. “I beat a guy [Stefanos Tsitsipas] in the top five in the world. I was neck-and-neck with [Matteo] Berrettini, who is one of the best grass-court players in the world before his injury. I played well against [Nick] Kyrgios, as well.”

The former World No. 1 marched to the final at the ATP 250 event in south-west Germany without dropping a set. Despite a three-set loss to World No. 11 Berrettini in the championship match, Murray feels it is proof he still has the game to go toe-to-toe with anyone in the draw at the All England Lawn Tennis Club. His coach, eight-time Grand Slam champion Ivan Lendl, feels the same.

“I know the tennis is in there; I just need to bring it out during the event now,” said Murray. “Obviously having Ivan on my team helps. We've had a lot of success in the past. We know each other well. He still believes in me. There's not loads of people out there that have done over this last period, and he has. That definitely helps me.”

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