Unseeded American stuns Wawrinka in 5 units
LONDON — Unseeded Reilly Opelka of the US edged three-time main champion Stan Wawrinka 7-5, Three-6, Four-6, 6-Four, Eight-6 at Wimbledon on Wednesday to succeed in the third spherical of a Grand Slam event for the primary time.
The 63rd-ranked Opelka, who’s making his debut at Wimbledon and enjoying in solely his fourth Grand Slam event, earned the one service break of the fifth set within the final sport, helped by 4 groundstroke errors from Wawrinka, who was seeded 22nd.
This was solely the sixth Grand Slam match of Opelka’s profession. Opelka, 21, defeated John Isner within the first spherical of the Australian Open in January.
The 6-foot-11 Opelka used his serve to get issues executed towards Wawrinka. He completed with 23 aces, with a number of serves topping 140 mph. One, at 142 mph, tied with Zverev for the quickest of the event to this point.
Eight of Opelka’s aces got here within the final set, when he saved each break factors he confronted. In all, he fended off 10 of Wawrinka’s 12 break possibilities.
It was one other upset in a event crammed with early surprises. On Monday, each No. 6 Alexander Zverev and No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas had been eradicated. No. 5 Dominic Thiem, a French Open finalist the previous two years, adopted them out of the event on Tuesday.
Opelka turns into the primary American man since Justin Gimelstob in 1997 to knock out a earlier main title winner in his Wimbledon essential draw debut.
Wimbledon is the one main event Wawrinka hasn’t received. He has misplaced in both the primary or second spherical on the All England Membership in every of the previous 4 years since reaching the quarterfinals in 2014 and 2015.
The Related Press contributed to this report.