Key Points
- No. 4 seed Ben Shelton lost his Wimbledon opener to Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen.
- The score was 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(8), 6-2, 7-6(9) over four hours and 21 minutes.
- Shelton held a match point at 9-8 in the deciding tiebreaker but lost it.
- Virtanen, ranked 140th, is the first Finnish man to beat a top-five seed at a major.
Ben Shelton's Wimbledon ended in the first round. The world No. 5 and No. 4 seed — the top-ranked American man in the draw — lost to Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(8), 6-2, 7-6(9), Yahoo Sports reported.
The 23-year-old led 8-5 in the deciding 10-point tiebreaker and held a match point at 9-8, but an unforced error and two more lost points ended a match that ran four hours and 21 minutes. It was the first time Shelton has lost in the first round at Wimbledon, and he called it "one of the toughest losses of my career." Virtanen, ranked 140th, became the first Finnish man to beat a top-five seed at a major in the Open Era.
The loss is the kind the grass season specializes in: a big-serving qualifier, a best-of-five format that rewards nerve, and a favorite who never converted his match point. It deepens a turbulent start to a fortnight that opened with Carlos Alcaraz already out of the draw. For the American contingent that arrived with attention — from Serena Williams's wild-card return to Coco Gauff — Shelton was meant to be the men's standard-bearer. Instead he is the tournament's first marquee casualty. The seed carnage kept coming on the women's side, too, where Filipina qualifier Alexandra Eala stunned Iga Świątek to reach the round of 16.
Source: Yahoo Sports, ATP Tour.
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