Rafael Nadal safely through to the second round after a four-set battle with the Argentine debutant francisco cerundolo.
The Spaniard, who is on his way to a Grand Slam on the calendar following victories at the Australian and French Opens earlier this year, won 6-4 6-3 3-6 6-4.
It was a successful comeback for Nadal, 36, just three weeks after undergoing definitive treatment for a chronic foot injury. He appeared to be moving forward in the match until a series of unforced errors allowed the 23-year-old Cerundolo to re-enter.
The Argentine picked up the pace and used his powerful forehand to dominate two-time Wimbledon champion Nadal, who has won a further 20 Grand Slam titles, taking the third set and breaking serve in the fourth.
But Nadal, who won the Australian Open in January and the French Open earlier this month, regrouped and used all his experience to fight back, twice breaking a now nervous opponent to seal the match to the delight of one court. packed center.
Nick Kyrgios came via a five-set thriller in the first round against the British wild card Paul Jubb as his fearsome serve, including 30 aces, eventually bested the 22-year-old 3-6 6-1 7-5 6-7(3) 7-5.
It was an unexpected mock exam for Kyrgios, as the outsider kept his cool in the face of the Aussie’s usual verbal antics, but came up short. The winner looked pretty flat losing the first set to a player whose career highlight of his was winning the US NCAA college title in 2019, and to his frustration he threw a high ball and off court three.
Kyrgios is a player for whom the word “hitting” was invented, as he seems to need to maintain a continuous monologue to motivate himself.
He was very offended when a single fan gave an almost polite boo and complained to the referee: “You don’t accept a cap with two logos but you accept disrespect to an athlete?”
Kyrgios later complained that a linesman “reported” him to the referee. “No one has come here today to hear you speak,” he said.
The talk seemed to energize him as he began to find his range in a strong second set, but Jubb refused to lay down, being outplayed in the third and going toe-to-toe to take the fourth on the back of a strong tie break. The Briton, in his second appearance at Wimbledon after losing in the first round three years ago, was cool in ignoring any potential distractions from Kyrgios’ comments, which included another lengthy complaint about an unreported net cord in the tiebreaker
It has been eight years since Kyrgios upset then-world number one Rafa Nadal to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals, but he has never matched that since and has only reached one other Grand Slam quarter-final: in Australia in 2015.
The 27-year-old has slipped to World No. 40 but his serve remains out of the top drawer, demonstrated when he swept the third game of the deciding set to love in 43 seconds before breaking Jubb.
Serving for the set, however, Kyrgios stepped back to admire a drop shot, only to be stranded when Jubb brilliantly ran him en route to his own break back.
Jubb then failed to convert a break point and, serving to push the match into a decider tiebreak, chipped in a pair of wide shots to help Kyrgios secure the win.
Reference-www.rte.ie