Seventh British player and 180th player in the world, Peniston was playing his first ATP Tour tournament against the world number 5, whose grass is not the preferred surface.

Ruud can console himself by saying that he is the 7th seeded N.1 to fall from the start in the history of the English tournament and that the list includes players much stronger than him on this surface like Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras or Andy Murray.

"I can't really believe it, it's like a dream. I didn't manage to get much sleep last night, so it seems unreal", testified Peniston who received an invitation (wild card) to play at Wimbledon from June 27.

The joy of Briton Ryan Peniston, after his victory, 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/2), against Norwegian Casper Ruud, on June 14, 2022, in the 1st round of the Queen's JUSTIN grass tournament TALLIS AFP

"Obviously Casper is an incredible player, he was so good at Roland-Garros that I knew it would be very difficult, but you have to enter the court with the conviction that you have a chance of winning, that's what that I did,” he explained.

The London afternoon was also fatal to the No. 5 seed, the Argentinian Diego Schwartzman, severely beaten by Sam Querrey (6-1, 6-4).

Coming from the qualifications, the 34-year-old American and his 1.98m passed 10 aces to Schwartzman who remained on a defeat in the round of 16 in Paris against Novak Djokovic.

In the other matches of the afternoon, the Italian defending champion Matteo Berrettini, seeded N.2 assured against the Briton Daniel Evans (6-3, 6-3).

The French Quentin Halys (86th in the world) fought well before dropping the flag against another qualifier, the Finn Emil Ruusuvuori (56th) in three sets 6-4, 6-7 (6/8), 6 -4.

The day did not smile on the blues since in doubles, the pair Nicolas Mahut / Edouard Roger-Vasselin lost to the Briton Lloyd Glasspool and the Finn Harri Haliövaara, holders of a Wild Card, 7- 5, 6-3.

At the very end of the day, the match of the seeded N.6, Denis Shapovalov, against the American Tommy Paul, was interrupted by the night while the Canadian had returned to a set everywhere, 4-6, 6 -2.

© 2022 AFP