Women’s singles tournament at 2018 Wimbledon has given us some surprising early exits so far, including those of Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova, and Caroline Wozniacki. It looks like we are in for the same in men’s singles, since three times Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka and current fifth-ranked male tennis player in the world, Marin Cilic, both suffered shocking defeats and have been eliminated from the tournament.
Stan Wawrinka exited first, suffering a defeat in three sets (7-6 (9-7), 6-3, 7-6 (8-6)) by Thomas Fabbiano in the second round on Wednesday. Fabbiano is currently 133rd ranked male tennis player in the world. The match was scheduled for Tuesday but had to be moved to Wednesday halfway through because of bad weather.
“Well, for sure I’m really disappointed to lose a match like yesterday and today,” – said Wawrinka after the match. “I think I was playing really well yesterday. It was really making the game. During the match, I was a little bit between in my game, not aggressive enough, not moving well enough.”
While the defeat of Stan Wawrinka, who is coming from two knee surgeries in 2017, is somewhat understandable, the exit of Marin Cilic came as shock to everyone.
Cilic, who was last year’s Wimbledon finalist, faced 82nd male tennis player in the world, Guido Pella, on Thursday and looked comfortable, winning first two sets 6-3 and 6-1.
Croatian then relaxed a bit, which gave Pella opportunity to find his game and win the remaining three sets 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-5.
Pell credits his win to the fact that match had to be suspended in the third set on Wednesday due to rain, and resumed on Thursday.
“Yesterday he was playing so, so good, and hitting the ball so hard that I couldn’t do anything,” – he said. “So the rain helped me a lot.”
Other favorites, including Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer, didn’t have similar problems and easily dealt with their opponent, advancing to the Round of 32 on 2018 Wimbledon.
