Top 10 Wimbledon Upsets in 2011

One of the worst things in sports is to be favored in a match, and lose.

Obviously, there is more pressure on person that is supposed to win, compared to the underdog.

Some people just can’t handle the spotlight, and it showed in Wimbledon this year.

Although we haven’t seen too many major upsets, there were matches that displayed some excellent tennis.

We saw maybe the future of tennis with emerging stars Ryan Harrison taking David Ferrer to five sets, and Grigor Dimitrov playing very well against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round.

In addition, even though Lleyton Hewitt might be done, he gave Robin Soderling a run taking him to five sets, playing his heart out.

One of the best matches of the tournament so far has been Rafael Nadal vs. Juan Martin Del Potro. The four-set thriller was a sign of more good matches between Nadal in Del Potro in the future.

What’s good about sports is the upsets, and through four completed rounds at Wimbledon, many favors are packing their bags.

Here is a list of the top 10 Wimbledon upsets so far.

Note: The rankings next to the player are by world rankings, not by Wimbledon.

Honorable mentions: Fernando Gonzalez (ranked 97) defeating Alexandr Dolgopolov (ranked 24) 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, first round.

Gilles Muller (ranked 92) defeating Milos Raoncic (ranked 25) 2-3 (retired), second round.

10. Ivan Ljubicic (ranked 33) Defeating Marin Cilic (ranked 26)

Score: 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, first round.

Ljubicic is a solid player, but Cilic should not have lost to him. Cilic has so much promise, but can’t seem to translate it. He is comparable to Juan Marin Del Potro because of his height and his great movement for a tall guy. Cilic is very still young (22), meaning he has time to work on his game. He doesn’t really have a strong backhand, he just pushes it in. He to Ljubicic because he wasn’t aggressive enough. It’s not like Cilic can’t compete with the best of them. This year, he beat Thomaz Bellucci, Mardy Fish, Mikhail Youzhny, Tomas Berdych and Jurgen Melzer. At times, Cilic has shown flashes of brilliance. In 2010, he made it all the to the semifinals in Australia.

9. Dmitry Turnsonov (ranked 53) Defeating Ernests Gulbis (ranked 75)

6-3, 3-6, 7-6, 7-6, 1^st round.

What has happened to Gulbis? Ranked as high as 21 on February 7^th, it has all gone downhill. Although Gulbis has so much natural talent, he doesn’t care enough to win. He has all the money in the world because his dad is one of the richest people in Latvia, so he plays for fun. He doesn’t have any determination to win and when he’s down, he gives up. Gulbis has lost in the first round in the Australian, French and Wimbledon this year. Only at age 22, Gulbis still has time to mature.

8. Robin Hasse (ranked 58) Defeating Fernando Verdasco (ranked 22)

6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 1^st round.

Verdasco is kind of overrated himself, but that doesn’t excuse him losing in the first round to a below average tennis player. Verdasco has very good strokes, but a below average serve. His biggest flaw is mentally he is not strong. Losing in the third round at the French this year was also a bad showing for Verdasco. This surely is a sign that Verdasco is on the downfall.

7. Yen Hsun Lu (ranked 57) defeating Viktor Troicki (ranked 12)

7-6, 6-4, 6-4, 2^nd round.

I guess Lu has to upset at least one favored every year at Wimbledon. Last year he took out Andy Roddick and this year he didn’t have much trouble beating Troicki. Troicki is an average player. He gets his high ranking because he plays a lot of matches, but he doesn’t have the potential that Bellucci or Cilic has. Even though this was an upset on paper, it shouldn’t have come as too big of a surprise. Troicki hasn’t been past the fourth round in any major. Although Troicki doesn’t have too many glaring weaknesses, he doesn’t have any strengths either.

6. Rainer Schuettler (ranked 113) Defeating Thomaz Bellucci (ranked 28)

7-6, 6-4, 6-2, first round.

Schuettler is 35 years old, and he doesn’t have any quality wins this year except maybe to Ryan Harrison. He lost in the first round at the French and Australia this year, both in straight sets. Losing in straight sets was an embarrassing loss for Bellucci, and he won’t forget it. Bellucci’s game should be one of the best in tennis for years to come. Bellucci has a huge left serve and big forehand. His only weakness is his backhand, which he tends to be very late on. Bellucci should use the loss to Schuettler as a learning experience.

5. Simone Bolelli (ranked 116) Defeating Stanislas Wawrinka (ranked 14)

6-3, 6-3, 6-4, second round.

Wawrinka should not be losing to a guy like Bolelli. Bolelli isn’t too bad, just Wawrinka is in the top tier of tennis players. Wawrinka has had a lot of quality wins leading up to Wimbledon. He beat Roddick, Monfils, Dimitrov, Berdych (twice times) and Tsonga this year. It could have been the case that he was having a bad day. Still, it’s not an excuse losing this early.

4. Feliciano Lopez (ranked 44) defeating Andy Roddick (ranked 10)

7-6, 7-6, 6-4, third round.

Andy Roddick losing should not have come as a shock to anybody. He is one of the most overrated tennis players. Since making the finals in Wimbledon in 2009, the furthest he has gone in a grand slam is the fourth round in the Australian Open in 2010. He isn’t getting any younger either. Roddick has no backhand. His approach backhand approach shots against Lopez were pathetic. I was expecting Roddick to lose early, but not in the third round.

3. Lukasz Kubot (ranked 93) defeating Gael Monfils (ranked 8)

6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, third round.

The draw looked so promising for Monfils, but as usual he couldn’t convert. He was going to play Feliciano Lopez in the next round, which would have been an easy win. Next, would be Andy Murray, which would be a good match. Monfils has let a lot of people down over the years, and this year has been no different. He has so much athletic ability and talent. Monfils just needs to come up to net and not be so much of a head case. Hopefully, tennis fans will get what they have waited for years for from Monfils: quality wins, not one win, at a grand slam.

2. Bernard Tomic (ranked 158) Defeating Robin Soderling (ranked 5)

6-1, 6-4, 7-5, third round.

Tomic has a big future ahead of him and beating Soderling proved that statement true. With that being said, Soderling still should have won the match. The day before he played Soderling, Tomic had to play a long five-set match against Igor Andreev, meaning he would be fatigued. Soderling played very poorly against Tomic. Even so, he should have won at least won a set off him.

1. Mardy Fish (ranked 9) Defeating Tomas Berdych (ranked 7)

7-6, 7-6, 6-4, fourth round.

This should have never happened. Fish always gives Berdych matchup problems, even though Berdych is clearly the better player. At 29 years old, and poor showings at the French Open and Australian Open this year (losing in the third round at the French and second round at Australia), it looked as though Fish was done. Berdych made it to the finals at Wimbledon last beating Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the process. He should have taken care of Fish. It doesn’t really matter because Fish will lose to Nadal next round.