Andy Roddick was the Artois Championship, his annual Wimbledon preparation, where he was the defending champion. Roddick defeated Mardy Fish and Andy Murray, before losing to eventual champion Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. At Wimbledon, Roddick was beaten by Serbia's Janko Tipsarević. This was his earliest exit at Wimbledon. Roddick was beaten at the Rogers Cup in the third round by Marin Čilić. He was then forced to pull out of the Cincinnati Masters following a neck injury, which he said may have been caused by a poor sleeping posture. He stated in an interview that the neck injury had nothing to
2008 Wimbledon Championships – Day-by-day summaries caused his retirement in the singles earlier in the day. In the women's doubles competition, French Open mixed doubles champion Victoria Azarenka & partner Shahar Pe'er proceeded to the next round. In the men's singles, Queen's Club champion, 2006 and 2007 Wimbledon runner-up Rafael Nadal scored his first win, securing a second round spot along with Jarkko Nieminen, Nicolas Kiefer, Tommy Robredo, Richard Gasquet, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Radek Štěpánek, Gilles Simon, Nicolás Almagro, Mikhail Youzhny, James Blake, two-time finalist Andy Roddick, and twelfth seed Andy Murray, who overcame 'The Magician' Fabrice Santoro 6–3, 6–4, 7–6(5), in little more than two hours,