There were three matches on Court 1 at Wimbledon on Thursday. And there were three upsets. Gilles Simon, Garbine Muguruza, and Dominic Thiem all got booted out of the All-England Club during second-round action. Muguruza’s exit, of course, may have been the most surprising given that she is a former runner-up at the All-England Club and the reigning French Open champion.
But it all started with Simon, who succumbed to a reinvigorated Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-4. Dimitrov had not won a match since his Istanbul final meltdown against Diego Schwartzman and he showed signs of being unable to seal the deal. The Bulgarian lost the third set and even trailed by a break in the fourth before managing to close it out.
“I have been, I think, quite a bit unfortunate with some of my matches the past months,” Dimitrov noted. “I would say. I just figured, well, it is what it is. I can’t do anything about it. But the only thing I can do is give myself the best shot possible. When I got to that point, when I got to that feeling…I just kept playing my game. My excitement for the game was there, which always helps. The positivity brings you good shots, good decisions.”
“In the end Grigor played really good in the key moments, tiebreak in the second set and the end of the fourth set,” Simon commented. “I had the feeling that I was more confident on the court in the third and in the fourth also. But in just five minutes he played like really good.”
Muguruza was good for just about zero minutes on Thursday. Unable to make the transition from clay to grass and perhaps bogged down mentally as well, the Roland Garros winner lost 6-3, 6-2 to Jana Cepelova.
“I think my energy was missing a little bit today,” Muguruza explained. “From yesterday I felt already a little bit…tired I think is the best word. And today during the match and after the match I’m like, ‘It’s a tough day today.’ I [felt] empty a little bit and I start to be sick. But I think it was a little bit of combination.”
Thiem also tumbled out in straight sets, although he at least put up a fight. In a showdown that all boiled down to tiebreakers, Jiri Vesely swept the Austrian 7-6(5), 7-6(4), 7-6(3). After exchanging a pair of breaks in the opening set, both men held the entire rest of the way.
Despite getting the job done in straight sets, Vesely won just three more total points than Thiem (126-123).
Dang. Crazy day.