Day 5 of Wimbledon didn’t provide any real surprises or upsets, but it did bring us another John Isner five-set classic. Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic continues to march forward untroubled after what could have been a psyche-shattering loss in the French Open final a month ago.
Who Looked Good:
Nick Kyrgios (defeated Raonic 57 75 76(3) 63): We’ve criticized Kyrgios for the past few days over his attitude and demeanor on court. And those are still worthy of criticism. But we also have to wear credit where credit is due. He is a darn good tennis player who excels on grass. We would like to see the antics taken out of the game, but we also love to see Kyrgios play. He has a huge serve, tremendous power, and an excellent ground game. He’s built to win Wimbledon someday. Let’s see him keep calm and actually do it.
Richard Gasquet (defeated Dimitrov 63 64 64): He was my dark horse before the tournament. He plays well on grass and transfers from surprising good defense to strong offense seamlessly on this surface. Gasquet has done a great job getting himself in a position to stop his slide down the rankings and this second consecutive Slam second week will no doubt boost his confidence. The former semifinalist has a tough but winnable match against Kyrgios next.
David Goffin (defeated Baghdatis 63 64 62): Goffin came out of nowhere a few years ago to reach the fourth round at Roland Garros. Since then his ranking had fallen out of the top 100 before rising back to where he currently sits at World #15. Still, it always takes us by a bit of surprise when he makes deep runs. He is in his second Slam second week now though and the powerful-but-undersized Belgian gets a match with French Open champion Stan Wawrinka next.
I also have to give a shout-out to Denis Kudla. If you remember, Andy Murray mentioned that he had dreamed he was playing Kudla in the final before his match against Djokovic in 2013. Well, after taking full advantage of an open draw, the young American is into Round 4 and just three very unlikely wins away from making that a reality, though his next match is certainly winnable.
Who Looked Bad:
Grigor Dimitrov: Dimitrov is in a slump right now and many honestly expected him to be upset before he even reached the third round. Maybe this tournament will help him turn things around, but getting run off the court by Gasquet isn’t a good showing.
Milos Raonic: There’s not much wrong with losing to Kyrgios here. But Raonic’s serve was not up to his usual level here. He won under 75% of his first serve points and barely won half of his second serves. When your game is built around the serve like Raonic’s is, you need to keep those numbers higher. That would be true against a great returner like Murray or Djokovic and is certainly true against Kyrgios.
Match of the Day
There’s really only one choice. We had two five-setters today, but Kudla/Giraldo had far less intensity and a lower quality of play. John Isner and Marin Cilic played a beautiful grass court tennis match for well over four hours. This was not one of those big server matchups that is just ace after ace and can be difficult for some fans to watch. This match had everything.
Sure, both of these players live by the serve. And yes, breaks were hard to come by. But Cilic did an amazing job getting into the Isner service games. Isner was constantly forced to hit follow-ups and rally winners to hold his serve. Isner, for his part, made Cilic work a bit for his holds but it was nowhere near as difficult. Still, these two played 4+ hours of tense, all-court tennis, including some tremendous highlight-reel winners and classy volleys.
This match was break-free for the first two sets as the two split a pair of tiebreaks. Cilic earned a decisive break to win the third set before Isner took the fourth in a tiebreak–after falling down an early minibreak. And we were off to a fifth set, which as we all know can last forever when Isner is playing.
It did not look like it would last forever, though. Isner was broken in the second game of the set and the rest felt like a formality. Down 3-1, though, Isner managed to open up triple break point and took his second opportunity to put the set back on serve. Now, again, we were looking for them to play forever. Each game was tense but big serves were constantly followed by important follow-ups or delightful volleys as this match went on into the ever-dwindling daylight.
Serve was held for another dozen games and all of a sudden it was too dark to continue. The best part about the best match of the day? It’s not done yet. It will pick up with Cilic serving at 10-10 on Saturday. And, as we learned with Isner back in 2010, they could actually play all day.
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