Wimbledon 2021 tennis - Huge shock as Frances Tiafoe downs Stefanos Tsitsipas in first round
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Updated 28/06/2021 at 17:42 GMT
Third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas suffered a shock defeat in the opening round of Wimbledon as he lost in straight sets, 6-4 6-4 6-3, to Frances Tiafoe. The American, who won the grass-court warm-up event in Nottingham, did not drop serve a single time as he stunned Tsitsipas in remarkable fashion to advance at the Greek star's expense.
US player Frances Tiafoe celebrates his win over Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas during their men's singles first round match on the first day of the 2021 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Tennis Club
Image credit: Getty Images
Frances Tiafoe caused a major upset on day one of Wimbledon as he downed third seed and French Open finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets.
The American stormed to the biggest win of his career so far as he secured a fine victory at the expense of the popular Greek, who had been tipped to shine at SW19.
Tiafoe, who won the grass-court warm-up event in Nottingham, did not drop serve a single time as he stunned Tsitsipas in remarkable fashion on Court No.1 in two hours and two minutes.
The third seed never looked himself as he struggled to gain any kind of a foothold in the match, while Tiafoe thrived with an impressive array of thunderous serves and huge groundstrokes.
Tiafoe will now await the winner of Vasek Pospisil and Roberto Carballes Baena as he aims to reach the third round at the All England Club for the second time, having previously done so three years ago.
It was a massive surprise, particularly given that, in beating Tsitsipas, the American defeated a top five-ranked player for the first time in 12 attempts.
"It was one of my best [performances]," said Tiafoe in his on-court interview.
"From start to finish it was pretty clean. This is what you train for, this is what it's all about.
"I'm not close to where I want to be. Today was big, I definitely needed that. He [Tsitsipas] is going to do a lot of great things."
Tsitsipas' premature and surprising exit is good news for world number one Novak Djokovic, who earlier defeated Britain's Jack Draper in four sets on Centre Court. He had been the highest seed for Djokovic to potentially have to face on his side of the draw.
Djokovic is eyeing a seventh Wimbledon crown and 20th Grand Slam title to draw level with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's overall tallies of majors, having already won the Australian Open and French Open this year.
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