Alex De Minaur exits Wimbledon in round one at the hands of Sebastian Korda

Ash Barty may have won her first round match in three sets but the standing ovation from Wimbledon’s Centre Court crowd was for her opponent.

At 32, Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro was playing her last tournament at the All England Club, having come back from cancer, specifically Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

The luck of the draw put her in the sights of Australian world number one Barty, but having already battled cancer, the seven-time grand slam quarter-finalist was up for the fight.

And for the most fleeting of moments there was hope she might have been able to pull off one more major upset.

Over the years her list of victims at the majors contains no less than six former grand slam champions: Venus Williams, Amelie Mauresmo, Maria Sharapova, Flavia Penetta, Angelique Kerber and Australia’s Sam Stosur having all fallen victim to her in a career that began in 2008.

Barty could have been another name on the list and at the end of the second set that was a distinct possibility.

‘Aussie Ash’ had been cruising after taking the first set 6-1 in just 25 minutes but in the second set the Spaniard displayed dogged determination, breaking back immediately when Barty served for the match at 5-4.

Suarez Navarro then flipped the script entirely on Barty and played her best tennis in a one-sided tie-break that saw her blast backhand winners as Barty sprayed errors.

The match was level.

But as quickly as Barty had lost her way she regained it, mercilessly hitting winners from all parts of the court to take the match 6-1, 6-7 (7-1), 6-1 as she won 26 of 32 points in the final set.

The crowd though knew the moment, if not the match, was Suarez Navarro’s and so did Barty.

The pair had the customary hug at the net but Barty, along with the crowd, remained standing as the world number one joined them in giving Suarez Navarro a rousing round of applause on her exit from SW19.

Ever-classy Barty was full of praise for her vanquished opponent post-match.

“It was incredible to be able to share the court with Carla and to share this experience with her after an incredible career,” Barty said.

“She is a fighter, a great competitor, a wonderful person and you genuinely can’t find a bad word to say about her.

“She is a genuine champion and she is going to be very sorely missed.”

While Suarez Navarro’s farewell tour will culminate at the US Open for Barty this match represented a return to form after her Roland Garros title defence was scuppered by injury and she said her body is feeling much better now on the grass of Wimbledon.

“[The body] is great, it is a lot better on the grass — it is a little bit more forgiving on the body,” Barty said ahead of a second round against either Russia’s Anna Blinkova or Hungarian veteran Timea Babos.

While Barty managed a win it was not to be for fellow Australian Stosur.

The veteran’s Wimbledon over with a 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 loss to American Shelby Rogers.

De Minaur stunned by son of a gun

Australia’s Alex De Minaur has been sent packing in the first round of Wimbledon by rising American star Sebastian Korda.

Korda, the 20-year-old son of 1998 Australian Open winner Petr, dismissed the Australian — who had just won his first grasscourt title at Eastbourne — 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5).

The powerful American youngster once again looked like one of the very best prospects in the game as he took the match out of de Minaur’s fighting hands with searing groundstrokes that brought him 41 winners.

De Minaur though was full of fight and his resilience came to the fore as he took the third set in a tie-break as Korda faltered on the forehand.

That pattern looked like it may continue and as the fourth set went deeper the unforced errors came off that wing again for Korda.

De Minaur then managed to stave off two match points in the fourth set tie-break before he sent a backhand wide from the return of serve to give Korda a big first round victory.

With the loss De Minaur joins an early exodus of seeded men’s players with French Open finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas, American Reilly Opelka, Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili all falling in round one.