Stan Wawrinka follows Nick Kyrgios out of Wimbledon in first round | Sport

Stan Wawrinka follows Nick Kyrgios out of Wimbledon in first round | Sport

Daniil Medvedev got down on his knees, kissed the Centre Court grass and drank in the moment. As maiden grand slam victories go, knocking out the world No3 on one of the biggest stages in tennis takes some topping.

The 21-year-old Russian, ranked 49th in the world after a promising run on grass, played without any inhibition and drowned out the nervous thoughts bouncing around his head to beat a hobbling Stan Wawrinka in four sets and cause the biggest upset on day one at Wimbledon. “I’m just really happy,” a beaming Medvedev said after defeating the US Open champion 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 in two hours and 13 minutes. “My first grand slam win. I mean, Centre Court of Wimbledon.”

For Wawrinka, it was another demoralising SW19 experience. The Swiss arrived in London harbouring hopes of completing the career slam and brought Paul Annacone, the former coach of Roger Federer and Pete Sampras, into his team in a bid to hone his unconvincing game on grass. Yet despite reaching the French Open final last month, Wawrinka’s Wimbledon preparations received a blow when he lost in the first round of Queen’s Club against Feliciano López and hurt his left knee, which came back to haunt him in the second set of his defeat by Medvedev.

Despite receiving extensive treatment after levelling the match, the fifth seed’s movement was restricted and Medvedev was ruthless. He pounced at the end of the third set to restore his advantage and peeled away from Wawrinka in the fourth.

His nerves briefly flared when he butchered two match points while serving at 5-1, but he took a third opportunity when Wawrinka, who was a potential quarterâ€'final opponent for Andy Murray, chipped a return long. “Two breaks ahead I was more confident,” Medvedev said. “At 5-1 I had almost no thoughts I could lose this match.”

Medvedev’s breakthrough win stood in stark contrast to the travails of another young pretender earlier in the day.

Nick Kyrgios shrugged his shoulders, fiddled with the skin on his fingers and buried his face in his towel. At one point he stood slumped against the netting at the back of No3 Court, wearing the exasperated expression of a man waiting for a delayed train, and anyone trying to decipher the puzzle that he is might have decided he would have jumped at the chance never to play tennis again.

Sympathy might be in short supply. There is no shortage of people who find the Australian’s antics unpalatable, who view him as a wastrel, an ungrateful brat who insults the game with his repeated betrayals of a gleaming talent, so it will not be a surprise if there is a rush to condemn the 20th seed after he retired injured, two sets into his opening match against the French doubles specialist and world No70, Pierre Hugues-Herbert.

History, after all, is not on the side of a player who was banned for three months by the ATP last year after admitting that he “took the easy way out” during a bizarre defeat against Mischa Zverev in Shanghai. Yet this did not feel like one of those days when he could be accused of tanking.

Kyrgios was a picture of dejection afterwards and hearing him say that he finds the thought of having surgery on the inflamed left hip frightening demonstrated his vulnerability. “I would do everything possible to avoid it,” he said. “But I don’t know. I’m obviously a little bit scared. But I don’t think I need it at the moment.”

Kyrgios’s doctor felt that he might have benefited from resting his hip, which he hurt in a heavy fall at Queen’s Club last month, but he was determined to play. Wimbledon has been his favourite tournament since he stunned Rafael Nadal here in an unforgettable fourth-round match in 2014.

He might have faced the Spaniard again had he managed to withstand the pain. There will be no rematch this year, although Nadal could tell Kyrgios a thing or two about coming back stronger from injury.

Despite rolling back the years in his La Decima assault at Roland Garros, uncertainty filled Nadal as he approached the lawns of the All England Club, having lost against players ranked outside the top 100 on his four previous visits. Yet there was no sign of any weakness in the two-time champion’s knees against Australia’s John Millman, even though they have buckled under the strain grass places on them in recent years. It was an awesome display from the resurgent French Open champion, who looked as ominously brilliant in his routine 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 win as he did on the Parisian clay.

He faces Donald Young next after the improving American progressed when Denis Istomin, Novak Djokovic’s conqueror in the Australian Open, retired while trailing 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, 4-2.

For all his potential, Kyrgios is yet to scale those heights. “I kind of knew I was in trouble,” the 22-year-old said. “I have been feeling my hip ever since I fell over at Queen’s. I was doing everything I could to help it. I just wasn’t 100%.”

“My preparation wasn’t great. I was playing practice sets. I knew I was hurting. Then I played a couple of practice matches at Boodles. I wasn’t going very hard; my opponents were sort of just having a bit of fun. I knew I was going to struggle. I always had to keep my practices controlled. I wasn’t moving much. I hit yesterday for half an hour with my mate. My preparation wasn’t ideal.”

Kyrgios threw neither tantrums nor rackets, and spat no venom at the umpire. More than anything, there was an unmistakable sadness to his demeanour. He started promisingly against Herbert, who won the men’s doubles last year, picking his opponent off with passing shots and hitting his forehand aggressively, but that level proved unsustainable.

Wearing white leggings under his shorts, Kyrgios capitulated in the seventh game of the first set, double-faulting to drop his serve.

Although he has never reached the second week of a grand slam singles event, Herbert has doubles expertise. The 26-year-old dominated at the net, struck 10 aces and used drop shots effectively. He broke in the second set when Kyrgios left a short return and served crisply to lead 6-3, 6-4.

Kyrgios could take no more, but at least another member of the next generation enjoyed his Wimbledon debut when the powerful Karen Khachanov held his nerve to defeat his fellow Russian, Andrey Kuznetsov. The 30th seed won 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.

Two of the tour’s more established faces on the tour made smoother progress into the second round. Kei Nishikori thumped Marco Cecchinato 6-2, 6-2, 6-0 and Marin Cilic, a losing finalist at Queen’s Club, saw off Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.

قالب وردپرس

Tweet

Subscribe to receive free email updates: