Aussies crash out to leave Rodionova flying the flag
AUSTRALIA has endured its equal-worst Wimbledon men’s campaign since World War II.
Exits for Bernard Tomic, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Jordan Thompson late Tuesday and early yesterday left Australia without a men’s singles representative in the second round at the All England Club for only the second time since 1938.
And only Russian-born qualifier Arina Rodionova — who fought off seven match points — has saved Australia from a humiliating and unprecedented first-round wipe-out.
Rodionova stunned former compatriot and 16th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova — a player ranked 149 places above her and a quarter-finalist last year — 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 9-7 to be Australia’s sole first-round survivor from nine starters at tennis’s greatest event.
Daria Gavrilova, the 20th seed, joined the exodus with a 6-4, 2-6, 10-8 loss to Croatian qualifier Petra Martic.
“I think I can’t really cope with the grand slam pressure,” said former junior world No.1 Gavrilova.
But while she and fellow three-set first-round loser Ashleigh Barty — who saved six match points before succumbing to world No.5 Elina Svitolina on Monday — showed some fight, Australia’s leading men flopped and, in Tomic’s case, embarrassed.
Tomic shocked the tennis world with the startling confession he felt bored in his lame 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 loss to German 27th seed Mischa Zverev.
“To me, this is one of the biggest tournaments in the world that I have done really well in my career and, yeah, I just couldn’t find anything,” he said.
The 24-year-old’s sorry loss came a day after John Millman ran into rampant Rafael Nadal; qualifier Andrew Whittington’s gallant run came to an end and Australia’s big hope Nick Kyrgios lasted two sets against Pierre-Hugues Herbert before retiring with a hip injury.
And try as they might on day two against seeded stars, Thompson and Kokkinakis were unable to back up their Queen’s Club heroics — where between them they toppled both 2016 Wimbledon finalists.
A fortnight after his earthmoving win over world No.1 Andy Murray, Thompson crashed to a 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) loss to Spanish 25th seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
Kokkinakis, ranked 478th in the world in his continuing comeback from a deflating 19month battle with injury, again showed promising signs in a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 loss to former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro.
Kokkinakis took heart from his plucky performance but lamented the failure of Australia to have one men’s player through to the second round. “That hurts,” he said. “Obviously a few of us have played some tough players. Everyone has got their own reasons.
“Obviously Nick is hurt. Bernie had a tough one. I don’t know who else was there. John played Rafa.
“Yeah, draws are a bit of a part of it. But I don’t know, maybe we didn’t all collectively play that great.”