The first Wednesday of Wimbledon wasn’t quite as wacky as last year, but there was still intrigue and big upsets to be had. Ernests Gulbis and David Ferrer both fell, with the latter shockingly failing to reach the second week of a major for the first time since Roland Garros in 2010. In that loss, we also witnessed the rise of a young new star in tennis. And Fabio Fognini continued his antics on court, as always.

Honor Roll:

Grigor Dimitrov (defeated Luke Saville 63 62 64)—Luke Saville is a talented grass-court player and former junior Wimbledon champion. Dimitrov had no trouble, though, and showed no signs of weakness. Nobody is sure just how far Grigor can go at this tournament, but it’s hard to see him slowing down at all before a potential quarterfinal meeting with Andy Murray.

Andrey Kuznetsov (defeated David Ferrer 67 60 36 63 62)—There is so much to say about this young player, and all of it is positive. First of all, Kuznetsov played incredible tennis. He hit massive shots from all over the court and beat down Ferrer’s defense. He never wavered and never pressed, even though Ferrer consistently made him hit extra shots to win points. Kuznetsov could have easily become disheartened when he lost the first set. A very poor line call caused a replay when Kuznetsov had set point and clearly controlled the rally. But he responded beautifully. He will move back into the top 100 with this win and will go much, much higher if he continues to play like this.

Gilles Simon (defeated Robin Haase 76 64 64)—Simon is not known for being good on grass. If anything, he is known for the opposite. But Simon moved cleanly today and produced some attacking groundstrokes that he had rarely displayed before in his career. It was an impressive performance against a good grass player. Unfortunately, his next match (against Novak Djokovic) will be several orders of magnitude more difficult.

Sergiy Stakhovsky (defeated Ernests Gulbis 64 63 76)—Stakhovsky brought his attacking grass-court game again, and it really gave Gulbis trouble. The Ukrainian won over 80% of the points on his serve and attacked Gulbis’ second serves, winning 60% of those points. It was an impressive performance, and he never allowed Gulbis to get comfortable on court. With the way this section of the draw has looked, a quarterfinal appearance is not out of the question.

There were other exemplary performances that deserve mention. Leonardo Mayer hit 51 winners with only 21 errors in beating Marcos Baghdatis. Kevin Anderson outdid that by hitting 62 winners to only 21 errors. Alexandr Dolgopolov hit 42 aces in four sets against Benjamin Becker. Andy Murray looked untouchable today, even if opponent Blaz Rola was clearly not ready to be on a big stage yet. And Radek Stepanek played the match of his life in a valiant four-set loss to Djokovic.

Lost Their Homework:

Fabio Fognini (defeated Tim Puetz 26 64 76 63)—Ever the showman, Fognini again decided to not start playing until the second set. This is a match he should have won easily, yet he donated an entire set and disappeared for extended periods. He attempted to donate the third-set tiebreak as well, but Puetz got tight and squandered a 4-0 lead. Fognini lives to fight another day, but at some point he’ll have to bring his A game for an entire match.

Mikhail Youzhny (lost to Jimmy Wang 67 26 76 36)—Youzhny looked listless and unmotivated on court today. He didn’t do anything notably wrong, but he wasn’t playing with the talent of a top-20 player. Everything was just a bit slower and shorter than usual, which led to a poor loss for him. Jimmy Wang had never advanced past the second round of a Grand Slam before this, and his best career result came at Youzhny’s expense.

Match of the Day:

The highest-quality match was probably Djokovic vs. Stepanek, but the most entertaining match had to be Jeremy Chardy against Marinko Matosevic. This match had everything. Both players were strong on return and punished second serves. It was a tense, back-and-forth match. The first three sets each went to tiebreaks, but not in the way you expect to get to tiebreaks on grass. Each player broke twice in the first set and once in each of the second and third sets. Matosevic managed to hold onto a break in the fourth set to take that one.

The crowd became very involved, especially as Matosevic attempted to pump them (and himself) up after nearly every big point as the match went on. There were chants of “Aussie Aussie Aussie Oy Oy Oy”. There were moments where a rousing “Chardy Chardy Chardy” chant led the Australian fans to respond “Marinko Marinko Marinko”. Late in the fifth set, there was even a moment where both groups of fans were shouting their player’s name at once. Matosevic went up a break early in the fifth set, but Chardy managed to break back and then break again in the 12th game for a 67 76 76 46 75 win in a match that was pure entertainment from start to finish.