by: TennisConnected Staff
Wimbledon—London, England
For just a small moment, it seemed that Wacky Wednesday from last year was soon to become Traumatic Thursday.
Extremely talented Aussie with a fantastic work ethic, Nick Kyrgios dug deep and fought past 13th seed Richard Gasquet in a five set thriller. For a time it looked like the youngster was down and out after losing the first two sets to the Frenchman, who has only just come back to the tour after a back injury. Gasquet was helpless to stop the Australian as he clawed back two sets to level the match saving no less than nine match points before serving out the win 3-6 6-7(4) 6-4 7-5 10-8.
Two-time champion Rafael Nadal knows how to keep people worried as he dropped another set, this time to his 2012 nemesis Lukas Rosol before restoring order and putting paid to THAT particular memory after edging a tense tie-break and then closing out at 4-6 7-6(6) 6-4 6-4.
It was not a great day to be French, as 24th seed Gael Monfils was ousted by ATP rising star Jiri Vesely 7-6(3) 6-3 6-7(1) 6-7(3) 6-4. Vesely will face Kyrgios in the next round, which will be a great encounter for young talent emerging in the ATP.
On the women’s side 15th seed Carla Suarez Navarro was out of sorts against Kazakhstan’s Zarina Diyas, as she was edged out of a tough first set tie-break and battled back to level the match in the second set before succumbing quite easily in the decider.
Roger Federer finished off proceedings under the roof for the first time these championships, as the weather took a turn for the worse. With the weather set to be pretty grotty for the next couple of days, the pressure will be on for the big names to get through the next few rounds.
