Unlike round 1, Day 3 hasn’t brought any significant upsets on the top half of the men’s draw. All top seeds remaining progressed to the next round, including defending champion Novak Djokovic. The most surprising result was perhaps Reilly Opelka’s 8-6 5th set win over Stan Wawrinka, but even that isn’t that much of a shock considering the surface and the potency of Opelka’s serve.
Wimbledon Men’s Day 3 Recap
Who looked good:
Novak Djokovic keeps cruising as he aims to defend his title, dropping only 7 games en route to a straight set win over Kudla in the last center court match of the day. The Serb is yet to be troubled at all in this tournament and looks like the favorite to win this tournament again.
David Goffin‘s victory over Chardy wasn’t exactly a surprise, but the ease of it certainly was considering how dangerous Chardy has proved to be on the surface. Ever since Roland Garros, Goffin seems to be find the kind of form that once made him a top 10 player in the world and with this victory he has set up a very interesting encounter with Daniil Medvedev in the next round.
Reilly Opelka has reached his first ever third round at a Slam with an incredible win over 3-time Slam champion Stan Wawrinka. The destructive power of his serve was on full display as expected, but he also demonstrated the ability to break serve at key moments. A serve fiesta against Milos Raonic awaits the young North American in the next round.
Fernando Verdasco came back from 0-2 down to beat Kyle Edmund on center court, setting himself up for another decent Slam run at the age of 35. Edmund’s physical problems seem to have contributed to the comeback, but it’s still an impressive win for the Spaniard.
Who looked bad:
Andreas Seppi has historically played well on grass and his draw seemed to give hope for a good run, but he lost against Guido Pella after wasting a 2-1 set lead, getting breadsticked in the deciding set.
Ivo Karlovic had a golden chance to revive his career with a run at Wimbledon, but couldn’t get past Fabbiano despite winning 2 tiebreaks. He was broken 3 times despite mostly cruising through his service games and really faltered when serving to stay in the match in the 5th set.
Kevin Anderson might have beaten Tipsarevic, but with significant difficulty against a player who’s pretty much semi-retired. The South African doesn’t look in the kind of form that’d allow him to repeat last year’s final appearance here.
Match of the day:
The award today goes to Karen Khachanov vs Feliciano Lopez. Khachanov’s baseline power game and Lopez’s net game produced a great contrast of styles on the grass and the match was even all throughout and could easily have gone to 5 sets. It had plenty of entertaining points and an amazing last game, where Khachanov broke for the win after 6 deuces. Ultimately Khachanov was steadier in the most important points, which earned him the win.
Main Photo from Getty
