Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen and Lu Yen-hsun yesterday both crashed out on the first day of Wimbledon, while Nick Kyrgios revealed he knew he was not fit enough to play after being forced to retire from his first-round match against Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
In the first round of the women’s singles, Chang fell to a 6-3, 6-4 defeat to China’s Wang Qiang in 66 minutes on Court 17 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
Chang served up four double faults and converted only one of the six break points she created to become the first Taiwanese casualty of the third Gram Slam of the year.
Photo: Reuters
In the first round of the men’s singles, Lu fell to 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat to Simone Bolelli in 2 hours, 3 minutes on Court 6.
Lu served up five double faults, but he did convert all four break points he created, but it was not enough as the Italian world No. 312 advanced to the second round.
Kyrgios has been struggling to recover from a hip injury that forced him to pull out of Queen’s Club last month and he was advised by a doctor not to compete at Wimbledon, but the 22-year-old had reached at least the fourth round in all three of his previous appearances and wanted to give it a shot at his favorite Grand Slam.
After losing in the second round at both the Australian and French Opens this year, Kyrgios’ miserable season continued as the world No. 20 lost the first two sets 6-3, 6-4 against Herbert before deciding to call it quits due to the nagging injury.
“I kind of knew I was in trouble. I have been feeling my hip ever since I fell over at Queen’s,” Kyrgios said. “Never got it right. I was doing everything I could to help it, but just not enough time. Yeah, I mean, I just wasn’t 100 percent. I spoke to the doctor before the tournament started. He was leaning towards me not even playing. It’s my favorite tournament. I do well here every year. So it’s tough for me to go out there and pull out. It’s not the easiest thing for me to do.”
Herbert next faces his compatriot Benoit Paire for a place in the third round.
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