Wednesday recap: Tiafoe loses but Medvedev squeaks through

There are several tournaments happening currently as a lead-up to Wimbledon which starts in two weeks. On Wednesday, Frances Tiafoe lost, but Daniil Medvedev won in their respective tournaments. On the ladies’ side, there were several upsets at the Rothesay Classic.

Let’s start with Tiafoe who must simply be wiped out by his recent run of success. He moved into the top 10 of the ATP rankings for the first ever this week after winning the Boss Open in Stuttgart this past Sunday. Tiafoe was swept out of the Cinch Championships on Wednesday in straight sets, losing to fellow American, Sebastian Korda.

Korda dominated play with his serve and got 15 aces on Tiafoe (Tiafoe had 6). Tiafoe also struggled with his first serve, landing only 59 percent of them. Korda will move on to play Cameron Norrie in the quarters.

Tiafoe ousted in second round of Cinch, several top-seeded ladies lose at Rothesay

Norrie defeated Jordan Thompson in a tighter-than-expected match. In the end, Norrie won 4-6 6-3 6-2.

Also at the Cinch Championships, Holger Rune, one of the best up-and-coming players on the ATP circuit, dominated Brit Ryan Peniston in straight sets 6-3 6-4. While tennis is starting to lose players like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal (next year will be Nadal’s last, he says), there are several good young players like Rune, Carlos Alcaraz, and Casper Ruud.

Lorenzo Musetti also won in the second round of the Cinch Championships. He defeated Ben Shelton 6-4 4-6 6-4.

At the Terra Wortmann Open, Stefanos Tsitsipas continued recent issues and lost to Nicolas Jarry in straight sets, 6-7 5-7. Tsitsipas has hit a rough patch since April and doesn’t look in great form for Wimbledon in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, Jarry is playing some of the best tennis of his life.

Top-seed Daniil Medvedev went three sets with Lasio Djere but won 6-4 6-7 6-3. Medvedev isn’t having as many issues as Tsitsipas, but he also doesn’t look anywhere close to how he did when he won the US Open in 2021. That said, Medvedev is still better on hard courts than on grass or clay.

Rounding out play at the Terra Wortmann Open, ninth-seeded Alexander Zverev defeated Denis Shapovalov 6-2 6-4. It was one of the best matches Zverev has played recently. He is still trying to get back in shape from injury. Eighth-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut won as well, defeating Brandon Nakashima 7-5 7-6.

At the Rothesay Classic, every seeded player except for top-seed Barbara Krejcikova (who won her first-round match on Wednesday over Cristian Bucsa 6-3 6-3). Otherwise, seventh-seeded Shuai Zhang lost to Emina Bektas 4-6 3-6, third-seeded Magda Linette lost to Lin Zhu 3-6 0-6, fifth-seeded Anhelina Kalinina lost to Harriet Dart 3-6 6-3 1-6, and sixth-seeded Bernarda Pera lost to Linda Fruhvirtova 1-6 6-7.

And proving that we here at Lob and Smash can jinx almost anyone, second-seeded Elena Rybakina lost in three sets to Donna Vekic 7-6 3-6 4-6 at the Bett1 Open. We made Rybakina a featured player in our Wednesday preview. Second-seeded Carolina Garcia defeated Jaimee Fourlis 6-3 6-2 and seventh-seeded Petra Kvitova defeated Nadia Podoroska 6-1 6-1, so it wasn’t a bad day for all the seeds in the women’s game on Wednesday.