3 biggest controversies from 1st week of Wimbledon 2022

Before the start of Wimbledon 2022, there was a lot of chatter about how fans would miss the greatest grasscourt player, Roger Federer, as well as banned Russian players like World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev.

But during the first week, there have been plenty of unexpected controversies which have brought the attention of tennis fans back to the action on court at the grasscourt Major. One such incident was when two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray played an underarm serve in his first-round match against James Duckworth, which stunned the Centre Court.

While traditionalists were surprised with Murray’s actions, and a few even criticized him, most tennis fans came out in his support.

This was the first time a Big 4 player had served underarm and openly supported its usage. After the match, Murray said he used the shot as a "smart play" to exploit how Duckworth had changed his return position when the Brit was serving.

Apart from Murray's underarm serve, there were three other controversies in the first week of Wimbledon 2022:

#3 Novak Djokovic not shaking hands with umpire

After Novak Djokovic’s third-round win over fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic in straight sets, the World No. 2 shook hands with his opponent but avoided doing so with the chair umpire. His actions did not go unnoticed by the Twitterat, with many questioning his on-court attitude.

When asked about this in the post-match press conference, Djokovic said he simply forgot and that "it was nothing personal."

I really didn't?! Oh, so that is why he looked at me that way afterwards, that's when I started thinking whether I shook his hand or not... I will apologize, it was nothing personal. We were forbidden to shake hands for over a year, traces of that I guess," Djokovic explained

#2 Rafael Nadal calling Lorenzo Sonego to the net

Rafael Nadal is known for his impeccable sportsmanship and has never smashed a tennis racket in anger. However, there was a controversial moment in his third-round match against Lorenzo Sonego where he called the Italian to the net and complained about his prolonged grunting during points.

While the Spaniard later apologized for his controversial actions and had a word with Sonego in the locker room, the Italian revealed that Nadal's gesture "distracted" him.

#1 Nick Krygios spitting at a fan

Nick Krygios has made a habit of creating controversy by either admonishing line judges and umpires or getting into arguments with tennis fans. In his first-round match at Wimbledon against Paul Jubb, it seemed that he crossed the line by not only calling a line judge “snitch” but also spitting at a fan who was constantly heckling him.

Nick Krygios continues to create controversy at Wimbledon

While he was fined $10,000 (around £8,200) by the All England Club for his unsportsmanlike conduct, it hasn't stopped Kyrgios from further controversial actions, as evidenced by his heated third-round match against Stefanos Tsitsipas.