• Wimbledon: Plays of the Day

A meeting of minds in the Royal Box

Pippa Middleton was safely entrenched in the Royal Box - alongside Condoleezza Rice © PA Photos

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Unlucky No. 5 on Day No. 1

The biggest surprises in both singles competitions involved the fifth seeds on Monday, as Rafael Nadal and Sara Errani both crashed out at the first opportunity.

Nadal's demise, unsurprisingly, garnered the majority of the attention - the Spaniard beaten by buoyant Belgian Steve Darcis in three draw-dropping sets.

But Errani set the precedent for surprises at the All England Club in 2013, the Italian surprisingly ousted in straight sets by Monica Puig.

Class in defeat

Rafael Nadal appeared to be in pain throughout much of his loss to Darcis, but refused to blame that for his loss.

"There were not a lot of good things for me," he said. "I tried my best all the time I had my chances but I did not make it. It is difficult to adapt your game on grass. Now is not the right time to talk about my knee. The only thing I can do is congratulate my opponent. It is not a tragedy, I lost, it is sport."

Class act.

The dashing Mr. Darcis

Darcis has a tattoo of a shark on his shoulder. Why? "Because I like sharks."

Makes sense...

Federer fails to grab mother's attention

When Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal were placed in the same half of the Wimbledon draw and announced on the first day's line-up, those who queued for days and nights would have been delighted to get their seats on Centre Court.

And just watching the greatest of all-time Federer in action is something else. Yes he may have cruised to an opening round win over Victor Hanescu, but being near the Swiss maestro was worth the wait.

Not if you are the mother of the record 17-time grand slam champion, who at a point during the third set decided to stop watching her son and delve into the tournament programme.

Which must have been more interesting than her boy tearing another opponent to pieces.

Baltacha bumps into a familiar face

Every year Elena Baltacha arrives to Wimbledon full of confidence and hoping to go on a decent run.

But every year pans out the same for the Brit as she suffered an early exit on the opening day of the Championships.

For the sixth time in her career Baltacha failed to clear the first hurdle at SW19 by crashing out in straight sets to Flavia Pennetta, and she was out even before Federer had walked out onto Centre Court.

Maybe next year perhaps she will make it beyond the 1pm start for the show courts.

A sweet, ma'am?

If you can, try and find the video of former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice being handed some sort of boiled sweet by a kindly staff member while she was enjoying the sights in the Royal Box on Centre Court.

It did not look like Dr. Rice knew whether to eat the sweet, or open trade negotiations with it. Priceless.

(Incidentally, we imagine she had a similar reaction when she was seated next to Pippa Middleton. "And what is it you do, Ms Middleton? ... I'm sorry, I'm still not entirely clear what that actually entails.")

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