{"id":38307,"date":"2021-06-28T14:16:40","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T18:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=38307"},"modified":"2021-06-28T15:54:42","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T19:54:42","slug":"americans-frances-tiafoe-sloane-stephens-upsets-wimbledon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2021\/06\/28\/americans-frances-tiafoe-sloane-stephens-upsets-wimbledon\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans Frances Tiafoe and Sloane Stephens Spring Big Upsets on Day 1 of Wimbledon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frances Tiafoe and Sloane Stephens were not expected to still be in their respective singles draws at the end of Day 1 of Wimbledon<\/a>, but both are into Round 2 after huge upsets.<\/p>\n

Frances Tiafoe defeats #3 Stefanos Tsitsipas<\/h3>\n

Tiafoe took on French Open finalist<\/a> and No. 3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in his 1st round match at the All-England Club. But, the American didn’t let the moment get to him and won<\/a> 6-4 6-4 6-3.<\/p>\n

It was a good serving day for Tiafoe. He won 69% of his first serves and 67% of second serves, saving all seven break points he faced.<\/p>\n

Tiafoe also did a good job taking control of return points on the Tsitsipas second serve, winning 58% of such points. Tiafoe managed to break Tsitsipas four times, as well.<\/p>\n

So, while Tsitsipas had 15 aces to one double fault and won 76% of his first serve points, ultimately his second serve made those gaudy numbers go to waste.<\/p>\n

Tsitsipas isn’t known to be the best returner in the game, of course. But he will surely be disappointed that he wasn’t able to break serve once over the course of three sets.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most crucial moment of the match was when Tsitsipas had 15-40 on the Tiafoe serve when the American was serving for the second set. However, Tiafoe stayed calm and eventually held, saving three break points in the process.<\/p>\n

And, ultimately, the match was more about Tiafoe’s performance than Tsitsipas’. Tiafoe had already shown promise this grass-court season, taking home the title in the Nottingham 1 Challenger<\/a> over Denis Kudla. In addition, he made the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 event in Queen’s Club before falling to Denis Shapovalov.<\/p>\n

Tiafoe’s ability to hit his spots on serve, along with his powerful forehand and flat, piercing backhand have done wonders for him on grass recently.<\/p>\n

As ESPN’s Kathleen McNamee reported Tiafoe explaining<\/a> after the win, “Definitely one of my best [matches]…From start to finish it was pretty clean…this is what you train for.”<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a>