WIMBLEDON, England — Whew. Good thing Wimbledon schedules its middle Sunday as a day off. This year, that gave everyone a chance to catch their breath after an eventful Week 1.
Action resumes Monday with all 16 men’s and women’s fourth-round matches. But might anything top Week 1 and two-time champion Rafael Nadal’s loss in the second round to an unknown guy ranked 100th — a guy who was beaten in his next match?
A day after Nadal’s exit, Roger Federer, owner of six titles at the All England Club, dropped the first two sets of his third-round match before coming back to win.
There was five-time champion Venus Williams’s departure on Day 1. Her younger sister, four-time champion Serena, is still around, but only barely. She pounded a tournament-record 23 aces to escape the third round with a 9-7 third-set victory.
As superb as both of the Williams siblings are, neither has pulled off what Serena’s next opponent managed to do Saturday: a perfect set. No woman had ever won all 24 points in a set in a professional match — and only one man had done it — until 65th-ranked Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan began that way against 10th-seeded Sara Errani of Italy, who was the runner-up at the French Open.
‘‘Hopefully I’ll be able to win a point in the set,’’ Williams said, looking ahead and keeping a straight face. ‘‘That will be my first goal, and then I’ll go from there.’’
American qualifier Brian Baker, who wasn’t even ranked a year ago because he was forced off tour for more than half a decade by a series of operations, made it to the fourth round. So did 10th-seeded Mardy Fish, playing in his first tournament in about 2½ months after being treated for an accelerated heartbeat.
Another US man, Sam Querrey, lost a 17-15 fifth set to 16th-seeded Marin Cilic after 5½ hours, the second-longest match in tournament history.
The tournament seemed to become enamored of its retractable roof, pulling it shut over Centre Court so much that defending champion Novak Djokovic remarked: ‘‘I was a little bit surprised, when I saw sunshine, that the roof is closed. Obviously, they’re relying on a forecast that I don’t think is very reliable here.’’