Black Wednesday in Wimbledon: Thiem lost the first round thriller against Tsitsipas

After the first round, Austria’s tennis aces are only in the role of spectators in the individual competitions of the Grand Slam tournament in Wimbledon: Only Dominic Thiem was close to victory on Wednesday, who defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in a drama in five acts 6: 3, 6:7, 2:6, 7:6, 6:7 lost.

The match was stopped on Tuesday when the score was 6: 3, 3: 4 from the Lower Austrian’s point of view due to rain. In yesterday’s continuation of the second set, Thiem reached the tie-breaker, but only made one point in it. Set four was just as one-sided, and the Greek secured it 6-2. In the fourth round, Thiem was far from a break, but won the tie-break.

The fifth set became an exchange of blows. He went into extra time because Thiem was able to fend off a match point when the score was 5: 6. He did it again in the Champions tie-break, and Tsitispas converted the third match point to make it 10:8. He sealed Thiem’s ​​sixth first-round defeat in a row at Grand Slam tournaments – but it had never been so close since his injury-related break. As in the most recent duel on clay in Madrid, Thiem kept up with number five in the world rankings – but again it wasn’t enough to win.

Ofner, Austria’s current number 1, did not win a set in a duel with the Czech Jiri Lehecka – 4: 6, 4: 6, 4: 6. “My opponent served well, I wasn’t consistent enough,” said the 27-year-old from Styria, who advanced to the third round at Wimbledon in 2017 and most recently reached the round of 16 at the French Open. Ofner’s early exit means that he will be a fixture at the Sparkasse Salzburg Open, a Challenger 125 event, which begins on Tuesday.

Julia Grabher remains in London, the Vorarlberg native will play doubles alongside Sara Errani (Ita). In singles, the trip is the world number 58. already ended. Grabher lost 4:6, 4:6 to Danielle Collins (USA) in the first round game that started on Monday. Like Ofner, the ÖTV player did not break. “It’s a shame, I’ve tried everything, but it shouldn’t be,” Grabher said after her debut in the Wimbledon main draw.

Dennis Novak (No. 159), who had fought his way through the qualifying mills, gave the former world number three Milos Raonic a three-set fight at eye level, but in the end the Canadian was to win 6: 7, 6: 4, 7: 6, prevail 6:1. Novak had already led 5: 3 in the tie-break of the third set. “I had my chances, something would have been in there,” said the 29-year-old from Wiener Neustadt.

Climate activist protest

The rain was not the only reason for delays on court 18: the match between Katie Boulter (Gbr) and Daria Saville (Aus) was interrupted by activists from the group “Just Stop Oil”. This distributed tinsel and parts of a Wimbledon puzzle on the court. An activist sat on the court, but was carried away without resistance.