Five upsets from the 2020 Olympic tennis tournament

Sara Sorribes Tormo (David Iliff, Wikimedia Commons)

The Olympic singles tennis tournaments are well underway, and there have been some significant upsets so far. Let us take a look at five of them.

5) Kei Nishikori–JPN vs. (5) Andrey Rublev–RUS–Based on Kei Nishikori’s resume, this may not have been considered an upset, but Andrey Rublev was arguably the best men’s tennis player in the world near the end of 2020, while Nishikori was battling coronavirus. Nishikori showed his brilliance from the past in his home country, with a 6-3, 6-4 first round win.

4) Ilya Ivashka–BLR vs. (10) Gael Monfils–FRA–The recent struggles of Gael Monfils continued in the first round of the Olympics, as he lost to Ilya Ivashka of Belarus, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. This was the second big win for Ivashka in 2021 as he also beat Alexander Zverev of Germany in the quarterfinals of the BMW Open in Munich in April.

3) Max Purcell–AUS over (9) Felix Auger-Aliassime–CAN–Expectations were high for the young Canadian at the Olympic Games after reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. However, Auger-Aliassime struggled mightily with unforced errors and got a royal beating by Australian Max Purcell, 6-4, 7-6. Purcell however then lost his second round match, 6-3, 6-0 to Dominik Koepfer of Germany.

2) Paula Badosa–ESP over (6) Iga Świątek–POL–In the second round of the Olympic women’s tennis tournament, Paula Badosa of Spain beat the 2020 French Open champion and sixth seed, Iga Swiatek of Poland, 6-3, 7-6. Badosa, who beat former United States Open champion Sloane Stephens, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 and former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 6-4, 6-3 at the 2020 French Open, before testing  positive for coronavirus back in January, also beat two-time major quarterfinalist Kristina Mladenovic of France, 6-7, 6-3, 6-0 in the first round of the Olympic women’s tennis tournament.

1)Sara Sorribes Tomo–ESP over (1) Ashleigh Barty–AUS–Australia’s own Ashleigh Barty will need to focus on doubles now after a quick exit in the Olympic women’s singles tournament. In the first round, Barty was beaten in straight sets to Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tomo, 6-4. 6-3. Sorribes Tomo was 47th in the world, and looked equally as impressive in her second round match in beating Fiona Ferro of France, 6-1, 6-4.

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