Aegon Championships, Great Britain

[1] Andy Murray (GBR) vs. [90] Jordan Thompson (AUS)

Murray was the defending champion and despite the shaky start to his 2017 season, much was expected of him on grass.  Unfortunately, you cannot just flip the switch from bad to good and Murray found that out today.  This was their first encounter; however, Murray was the defending champion and had won this tournament five times, so he should have been quite comfortable.  That was not the case today, Thompson made him uncomfortable the entire match and in the end, he got the insurance break and served it out 7-6(4), 6-2.

[3] Stan Wawrinka (SUI) vs. [32] Feliciano Lopez (ESP)

Coming into this match, Wawrinka led their head-to-head 4:2; however, Lopez was the player with the better results on grass.  Lopez has two grass courts titles, while Wawrinka has none.  Thus while on paper it may appear as an upset, in reality, it was not.  Lopez has won a title on every surface attesting to his versatility.  Lopez was also coming in primed; he was a finalist over the weekend on grass in Stuttgart.  Today was just a continuation of his in-form status and he won 7-6(4), 7-5.

[6] Milos Raonic (CAN) vs. [698] Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS)

This perhaps was the upset of the day, if we just look at their rankings; however, again that is misleading.  Kokkinakis was once ranked as high as sixty-nine until injury derailed him.  He was known for his big serve and forehand.  He is now making a comeback and what a statement he made today; yet, that is also misleading, because Raonic has been struggling with a bunch of niggling injuries recently and has not been at his top form. Both players were coming in low in confidence and rusty; however, Kokkinakis was the least rusty and he came away with the 7-6(5), 7-6(8) upset.

IT WAS A DAY OF UPSETS.

SOURCE OF IMAGE:  Creative Commons