Men's Notable Wimbledon First Round Matches

27. Marin Cilic vs Ivan Ljubicic: The Croatians will meet for the second time in their careers at the All England Lawn Championship in the first round. Cilic had two nice wins over Arnaud Clement and Thomaz Bellucci at Queen's Club on grass before he had to withdraw from the tournament due to an ankle injury. It seemed like a precaution so that Cilic wouldn't further injure the ankle before Wimbledon. Cilic is looking to make it past the round of 16 at Wimbledon for the first time in his career but he has played pretty well in his four years at the All England Lawn Championship. Ivan Ljubicic also played at Queen's Club but he only survived two rounds, as after his first round victory over Ryan Sweeting, he lost to Radek Stepanek in three sets. Ljubicic's worst surface is grass. His career record on grass is under .500 at 22-25. The farthest he has ever gone at Wimbledon is the third round.

Prediction: Marin Cilic over Ivan Ljubicic in 3 sets.

22. Alexandr Dolgopolov vs Fernando Gonzalez: The 22 year old Dolgopolov will only be playing in his second Wimbledon this year. In his first tune-up for Wimbledon, he beat Robin Hasse in the first round before losing to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second. He lost at Eastbourne in the first round to Carlos Berlocq in two sets the next week. Dolgopolov has only played 9 matches in his young career on grass, so he doesn't have nearly the experience that Gonzo has on the surface. The advantage for Dolgopolov coming into the match is that he has played a lot of good tennis in 2011, while Gonzalez has not been able to get on the court much. After the U.S. Open, Gonzo had to get surgery on his right hip and his right knee. He didn't return until the end of April but has been out since then. Wimbledon will only be Gonzalez's second tournament of the year and first on grass. He will definitely show some rust because of his long layoff. Gonzalez has played pretty well on the surface before, as he made a quarterfinal run back in 2005.

Prediction: Alexandr Dolgopolov over Fernando Gonzalez in 4 sets.

John Isner vs Nicolas Mahut: The rematch of the longest men's tennis match in history is upon us. Last year for three days, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut battled it out on court 18 in the first round for an astonishing 11 hours and 5 minutes until John Isner finally won in the fifth set 70 to 68. To put that in perspective, the longest match in Australian Open history between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco back in 2009 lasted 5 hours and 14 minutes. The fifth set of John Isner's match against Nicolas Mahut took 8 hours and 11 minutes alone. The fifth set of their match required a record 138 games. Isner also set the record for most aces in a match with 113 and Mahut also had 103 aces, which is the second most by a men in a match. Before the draw for Wimbledon came out this year, John Isner joked with his now close friend Nicolas Mahut, "Watch us play each other." Mahut replied, "No, there's no way. That's not even funny." Although there was a 0.7 percent chance that Isner would play Mahut in the first round for the second year in a row, it has occurred and obviously there was a lot of reaction. Andy Murray said, "Isner vs mahut drawing each other in the first round after last year is the most amazing thing I've seen in tennis! Centre court anyone?!" Andy Roddick said, "Isner/mahut again. Unreal Do they play it on the same court???" Patrick McEnroe said, "ISNER MAHUT rematch in round 1. Since I have'nt been able to get my big brother on twitter yet I will say it-you cannot be serious." Isner said about the rematch, "we're going to enjoy it and laugh at it at the same time." 

Prediction: John Isner over Nicolas Mahut in 5 sets

32. Marcos Baghdatis vs James Blake: Marcos Baghdatis has always loved to play on grass. He made it to the semifinals in 2006, the quarterfinals in 2007, and the round of 16 in 2008. In his tune-up tournament for Wimbledon at the UNICEF Open in the Netherlands, Baghdatis won three matches before losing to Ivan Dodig in the semifinals. The success that Bagdatis has had on grass is the opposite of how Blake has been on the surface. He has lost in the first or second round 6 out of 8 years and in the other two years he only reached the third round. The combination of Blake's lack of success of grass and his recent play makes it a difficult task for him. The last ATP tournament Blake played in was in the beginning of April. He has been recovering from a knee injury that caused him to miss much of the clay court season including the French Open.

Prediction: Marcos Baghdatis over James Blake in 4 sets