Ferrer, Gulbis, Youzhny and Azarenka Bounced Out of Wimbledon on Day 3

In a major upset on Wednesday, 7th seeded Spaniard David Ferrer was shocked by Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia in a grueling five-set second round match. In other upsets of the day, men’s 12th seeded Latvian Ernests Gulbis, 17th seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny and women’s 8th seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus also bowed out of the tournament. In other stories of the day top seeded Novak Djokovic dropped a set against Czech Republic’s Radek Stepnak and women’s doubles 3rd seeded pair of Kveta Peschke(Czech Republic) and Katarina Srebotnik(Slovenia) exited the competition. Other major stars stayed on course except Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who had his match against USA’s Sam Querrey was suspended in the final set for darkness. It was the second time in three days that Tsonga had to suffer such fate.

David Ferrer was the biggest casualty on day 3 at the All-England Club. In the most shocking result of the day, world no. 118 and 2009 boy’s champion at Wimbledon, Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia stretched the 7th seeded Spaniard to five sets, before sending Ferrer out of the competition. In 2012 and 2013, Ferrer had reached the quarterfinal at Wimbledon. Ferrer was drawn to meet Andy Murray in this year’s quarterfinals but the 23-year old Russian had other ideas, when he handed a 6-7, 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 defeat to the talented Spaniard. Ferrer, who reported suffered from upset, began ominously against Kuznetsov, who took him to the tie-break in the first set. Ferrer survived the tie break but lost the second set 0-6. Taking hold of himself in third set, Ferrer dominated and won the set 6-3 but his game crumbled after that, when Kuznetsov produced a brilliant court game and peppered it with strong service to take the next two sets 6-3, 6-2. The Russian gave ample proof of his superiority in match over the Spaniard by hitting 77 winners to Ferrer’s 26. Kuznetsov’s third round will be Leonardo Mayer of Argentina, who beat old hand Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis 7-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in another second round match.

Other men’s singles players joining Ferrer in the early exit were;,Ernests Gulbis of Latvia and Mikhail Youzhny of Russia. 12th seeded Gulbis suffered a 4-6, 3-6, 6-7, straight set defeat against Ukraine’s world no. 90 Sergiy Stakhovsky while Youzhny went down 6-7, 2-6, 7-6, 3-6 against Chinese Taepei’s Jimmy Wang.

Women’s 8th seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus continued with her injury-affected poor form in 2014 and left Wimbledon early just like she did last year. But despite her curtailed strength, Azarenka stretched herself to three sets before bowing out to the Serbian 22-year old Bojana Jovanovski 3-6, 6-3, 5-7. Other women’s seed making exits were no. 12 Flavia Pennetta of Italy and no.32 Elena Vesnina of Russia. Pennetta lost 4-6, 6-7 to the 21-year old unseeded American Lauren Davis and Vesnina lost 4-6, 2-6 to Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova of the Czech Republic. In another first round exit, third seeded women’s doubles pair of Kveta Peschke(Czech Republic) and Katarina Srebotnik(Slovenia) lost 5-7, 4-6 to the German/Slovak pair of Petkovic and Rybyrikova.

In what was branded as the match of the day, top seed Novak Djokovic lost a set before prevailing 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 against Czech Republic’s Radek Stepanek. The four-set affair was not an easy match for Djokovic, who was pressurized by Stepanek in the third set with the Serbian leading 5-2. With sheer will power, the Czech reeled out 5 points in a row to win the set on tie-break and force a decider.

Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has another tough match on hand. In his second round match on day 3 against USA’s Sam Querrey, the battle remained unfinished, when the play was called off due bad light. This time however, Tsonga is in a tight spot at the final set score reads 9-9 after the duo played out the four sets at 6–4, 6–7, 7–6, 3–6. Incidentally defending champion Andy Murray has cruised to the third round after defeating Slovenia’s Blaz Rola 6-1, 6-1, 6-0.