Mumbai, July 2 -- Elisabetta Cocciaretto was jokingly apologetic about being too philosophical in her post-match speech. Why wouldn't she be? Last year around this time, the Italian with a penchant for grass was hoping for a Wimbledon to savour as a top-50 player having made her deepest entry in a Slam at the French Open (fourth round). She instead lay in a hospital with a long-standing bout of pneumonia. This year, she did make it to Wimbledon after all, but as a player who had fallen out of the top 100 after kicking off 2024 with three consecutive first-round exits. In her opening act at the All England Club, though, she knocked out third seed Jessica Pegula 6-2, 6-3 in 58 minutes. "You have to accept what life gives you," she said, before the apology followed. Exactly a year after her most agonising FOMO moment, life would give the 24-year-old the biggest win yet of her career. In the very same tournament. On the same No.2 Court of Wimbledon where she packed off the world No.3 in a jiffy, men's world No.7 Lorenzo Musetti also went crashing out to Nikoloz Basilashvili 2-6, 6-4, 5-7, 1-6. The upset bug quickly spread from the first day to the second and into other courts. On Centre Court, men's third seed Alexander Zverev lost to unseeded Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech 6-7(3), 7-6(8), 3-6, 7-6(5), 4-6 in a match that continued from Monday. Women's fifth seed and Olympic gold medallist Qinwen Zheng too went down in three sets to Katerina Siniakova. The standout among them was Pegula, given the reigning US Open finalist was coming into Wimbledon having won a grasscourt title in Bad Homburg on Saturday. Little wonder the Italian that handed the American her earliest defeat at a major since 2020 couldn't stop beaming. During last year's Wimbledon, she couldn't stop feeling helpless. Cocciaretto, part of Italy's Billie Jean King Cup winning team of last year, began the 2024 season capturing her third WTA 125 title in Charleston. At the French Open she swept past two seeded opponents to make the fourth round before running into Coco Gauff. Moving to grass, a surface she loves, Cocciaretto won her quarter-final in Birmingham. That night, she began sweating profusely with high fever....