June 28, (THEWILL) – The first upset of Wimbledon arrived on the very first day of the men’s game and it was a major one as Frances Tiafoe downed third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who impressed in the last major at Roland Garros in Paris where he only lost to Novak Djokovic in the final.
Tiafoe took their match 6-4 6-4 6-3 to close out the game in sensational straight sets victory in a fashion scarcely anyone could have seen coming when the men’s draw was published and the American was drawn against Tsitsipas.
But, Tiafoe brilliantly stormed to the biggest win of his career, securing a major victory at the expense of the popular Greek, who had been tipped to shine at SW19, judging from the form of his progress at the French Open.
Ahead of Wimbledon, Tiafoe had won the grass-court warm-up event in Nottingham. He carried on that victory to the first All-England Club match against Tsitsipas and, impressively, did not drop serve a single time.
It was a remarkable display that a stunned Tsitsipas was out of the Grand Slam in two hours and two minutes. Looking beside his best, the third seed truly struggled to gain any kind of a foothold in the match. Meanwhile, Tiafoe shone with an impressive array of thunderous serves and huge groundstrokes that impressed the crowds.
The American won to thunderous ovation and will now await the winner of Vasek Pospisil and Roberto Carballes Baena as he aims to reach the third round at the All England Club for the second time. He had previously done so three years ago and did not have the opportunity last year as Wimbledon was scrapped due to the pandemic.
It marked Tiafoe’s 12th clash against a top five-ranked player and Tsitsipas is the first time the American has come out of the other side in victory. He acknowledged he played well in his post-match interview when he said: “It was one of my best [performances]. From start to finish it was pretty clean. This is what you train for, this is what it’s all about.
“I’m not close to where I want to be. Today was big, I definitely needed that. He [Tsitsipas] is going to do a lot of great things.”
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
