Stefanos Tsitsipas beats grand slam champ in first round Wimbledon marathon

Stefanos Tsitsipas (Rob Keating, Wikimedia Commons)

Well folks, we are moving into our fourth day of Wimbledon on Thursday, and due to inclement weather, we have not yet finished the first round. On Wednesday, there was an elite first round matchup and both players delivered at a high level. The matchup took place on Court 2, and tennis fans saw world number five and two-time grand slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece beat Austria’s Dominic Thiem, the 2020 United States Open champion, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2, 6-7, 7-6.

Tsitsipas, who reached the final of the 2021 French Open and 2023 Australian Open, made the fewest mistakes. He had only 32 unforced errors, while Thiem had 46 unforced errors. In the fifth set tiebreaker, Tsitsipas was victorious 10-8.

You may wonder why Tsitsipas had to face Thiem when he is a grand slam champion from the past. It is because Thiem has been suffering from a serious wrist injury in the last couple of years, and has not won a grand slam match since the 2021 Australian Open.

Next up for Tsitsipas in round two is another grand slam champion, Andy Murray of Great Britain. Murray won Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016, and the United States Open in 2012. Head to head, Tsitsipas and Murray have beaten each other once. Tsitsipas beat Murray 2-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the 2021 United States Open and Murray beat Tsitsipas 7-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of Stuttgart in 2022.

On the women’s side, there was one first round matchup where grand slam finalists faced each other. On Monday, in an all-American battle, Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, defeated the seventh seed Coco Gauff, the 2022 French Open finalist, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

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