Wimbledon 2017: Stan Wawrinka, Karolina Pliskova and other major upsets from the first week

First week upsets in Wimbledon are as commonplace as strawberries with cream and pigeons and unfriendly hawks. Each year, a bullish trailblazer shocks veterans and ageing champions looking for a breakthrough. This year’s edition too had its fair share of early round surprises.

As we look forward to the second week of Wimbledon 2017, let’s take a look at some of the biggest upsets from the past six days.

Stan Wawrinka

Three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka had perhaps the shortest stay among the top seeds. French Open runner-up just three weeks ago, Wawrinka was bothered by his left knee and lost 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to Daniil Medvedev at Centre Court in the first round at the All England Club.

Wawrinka was seeded No 5 and ranked No 3. Medvedev, a 21-year-old Russian, is ranked 49th and had never won a Grand Slam match.

Wawrinka iced his knee during changeovers and was never able to summon his best tennis. He has won each of the other three Major tournaments but has never been past the quarter-finals at Wimbledon. This was his sixth defeat in the first round at the All England Club.

Kei Nishikori

Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut proved too solid for a listless Kei Nishikori, winning 6-4, 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-3 on Court Three.

“I could not get into my rhythm,” Nishikori told a large gathering of Japanese reporters. “It was really hard for me to be aggressive today. In the third set I began to move him around a bit but it didn’t last long enough unfortunately. I totally lost my rhythm out there.”

It has been a mediocre year for Nishikori who is struggling to build on the promise he showed when he reached the 2014 US Open final, before losing to Marin Cilic.

After reaching the final in two of his first three tournaments of 2017 he has not made one since and has been suffering with niggling injuries.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga lost to American Sam Querrey, who shocked Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon last year. After their marathon tie was halted due to bad light late on Friday evening, Querrey and Tsonga had to come back to play the remainder of the final set on Saturday.

Querrey needed just five minutes to book his place in the Wimbledon last-16 as the American 24th seed finished off his delayed third round clash with Tsonga.

With Tsonga on serve, Querrey immediately broke to seal a 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 1-6, 7-5 victory over the French 12th seed.

Gael Monfils

15th seed Gael Monfils was defeated by compatriot Adrian Mannarino in an exhilarating five-setter.

Though he is a terrific athlete and an excellent volleyer, Monfils has never reached the last-16 at Wimbledon and he again showed us why he’s not a big fan of grass courts.

Mannarino won 7-6(3), 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 and next faces Djokovic.

Juan Martin del Potro

Juan Martin del Potro lost to unseeded Latvian Ernests Gulbis 4-6, 4-6, 6(3)-7. In the match, Gulbis had 25 aces and was only broken once. He had twice as many winners as his opponent, outnumbering Del Potro 60-30.

Del Potro, a Wimbledon semi-finalist in 2013, was pushed to the brink of retirement after three wrist surgeries.

So the Argentine 29th seed has an extra appreciation for Gulbis’s achievement, even if he would have preferred not to be on the receiving end of the upset.

“I know how good is Ernests on grass and if he has a good day, he can beat all the guys, because he already made it in the past,” Del Potro said.

Karolina Pliskova

Karolina Pliskova became the highest-seeded player to fall at Wimbledon, losing to Magdalena Rybarikova in the second round.

Third seed Pliskova was the runner-up at the U.S. Open last year and had reached at least the quarterfinals of her last three Grand Slam events. Despite the 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 loss, Pliskova still has a chance to move up to World No 1 in the rankings after Wimbledon depending on how Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep fare the rest of the tournament.

Dominika Cibulkova

Eighth-seeded Dominika Cibulkova 6(3)-7, 6-3, 4-6 lost to Croatian teenager Ana Konjuh, who made it to the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time.

She compiled a 54-22 edge in winners against Cibulkova, who was the runner-up at the 2014 Australian Open.

The 19-year-old Konjuh is the youngest woman left in the draw.

Petra Kvitova

World No 95 Madison Brengle shocked 11th seed Petra Kvitova 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 in the second round at Wimbledon.

Kvitova, who won Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, had been favored by some British bookmakers to lift the trophy at the end of the fortnight, despite competing in only her third tournament of her comeback. She was attacked by a knife-wielding intruder at her home in the Czech Republic in December and needed surgery on her left hand, the one she uses to hold a racket.

Still without full strength in that hand — even clenching it for a celebratory fist pump remains difficult — Kvitova returned at the French Open in May, losing in the second round there. But then she won a grass-court title at Birmingham in June.

Kristina Mladenovic

Kristina Mladenovic lost to Alison Riske in a second round encounter on Court 18. The American won 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

The French 12th seed slammed the condition of Wimbledon’s legendary Court 18 on Thursday, saying the grass was dangerously sparse and both she and her opponent wanted to quit.

With inputs from agencies