In the men's singles Wimbledon 2019 offered some surprises that were not necessarily expected. At such a tournament, stars go down and new stars are born. Above all, some top seeded players were eliminated early and other players surprised with their performances.
Out in the 1st round
We don't know what got into Stefanos Tsitsipas, but he as a top 7 seeded young Greek, who had already overrun a Roger Federer and is the current number 6 of the ATP world ranking, was eliminated against a Thomas Fabbiano (world ranking No. 89) completely unexpectedly in the first round. Not much better fared the German Alexander Zverev, who had certainly imagined Wimbledon differently. The number 5 in world tennis was defeated by the Czech Jiri Vesely, who is currently ranked 124 in the world and made it to the 3rd round. The fact that Gaël Monfils, seeded 16th, did not make it against his compatriot Ugo Humbert can be forgiven to the extent that the latter made it to the round of 16 and was eliminated there by Novak Djokovic. The Austrian Dominic Thiem will not feel much better, who was already eliminated in round 1 against the American Sam Querrey, even if one must give Thiem credit, the stubborn American could only be defeated in the quarterfinals by Rafael Nadal.
Out in the 2nd and 3rd round
Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka had certainly also hoped for more when, after a really hard-fought match that went over 5 rounds, he was knocked out in round 2 against American Reilly Opelka. Equally surprising and hard fought was the match between Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin and Top 9 seeded American John Isner, who to his sorrow ended the tournament early. Also a surprise to some will be the early exit of South African Kevin Anderson, who dueled with Novak Djokovic in the final a year ago. But he had no chance against the ambitious Argentine Guido Pella, who in turn made it to the quarterfinals.
Two top games and positive surprises
The two most gripping matches were probably the match between the Australian Nick Kyrgios and Rafael Nadal in the second round and the match between the young Pole Hubert Hurkacz and the number 1 Novak Djokovic. Impressive and challenging were the hard serves of Nick Kyrgios, who even on second serves shot balls over the net at over 200 kilometers per hour. He also impressed with strong passing shots. But his sometimes somewhat condescending, disrespectful manner - he once shot Rafa directly on the body/racket and gesticulated conspicuously - provoked Nadal a lot. But especially his serves from below, with which he surprised Nadal and even scored, were an insolence. The fact that he even won the second set 6:3 made the Spaniard all the more excited. His satisfaction was all the greater when he won the match against the aggressive and very direct Australian. Not as flashy but almost more surprising was the performance of the Pole Hubert Hurkacz against the world number 1 Novak Djokovic. He took the Serb in his stride and, to Djokovic's surprise, won the second set, which also surprised and impressed Djokovic. But this set win had taken too much out of the young Pole, which is why he went down in the very next game, but with his game against Djokovic he had attracted the attention of the world.
The best players make it to the final
In the end, however, the big favorites and the stars in world tennis made it to the finals as there are Novak Djokovic, No. 1, Roger Federer, No. 2, and Rafael Nadal, No. 3. The Wimbledon victory will be contested among these three in 2019.
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