Stan Wawrinka rebounded from a first set blowout to outlast No. 6 Grigor Dimitrov in the first round at Wimbledon on Monday, handing the Swiss star his first top-10 win since returning from injury and sending the Bulgarian home at the earliest stage.
The unseeded Wawrinka won 1-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 in two hours and 50 minutes, firing a backhand right into the serving Dimitrov’s feet on his second match point.
The match first turned late in the second set, when Wawrinka failed to convert set points on Dimitrov’s serve before forcing three errors from the Bulgarian to take the first he had in the tiebreak. But the sixth seed asserted himself again in the third, breaking Wawrinka right away after he slammed a ball of his racket frame, and holding two break points to take a 5-1 lead.
He couldn’t convert those break points, then lost his serve up 5-3 — by hitting a ball off his frame on break point. Wawrinka summoned extraordinary serving to fight off set points, then forced another tiebreak despite being outplayed nearly across the board.
Once again, Dimitrov became careless. He fired two forehands unnecessarily long while serving with a mini-break, then couldn’t get to a Wawrinka forehand placed in the corner. At set point on the Bulgarian’s serve, Wawrinka lunged for a trademark one-handed backhand up the line that landed just inside the sideline and gave him an improbable two set to one advantage.
Even in the sealing fourth set, Wawrinka never played from ahead. The 224th ranked player in the world occasionally nudged ahead in Dimitrov service games, but he returned the favor by jumping ahead 15-30, securing break points and otherwise troubling the Swiss player, just as he had all match.
He never could convert a break point, though, and the tenseness that betrayed him several times in the third set resurfaced. Serving to stay in the match, he hit a woeful forehand to fall behind 0-15, then fell victim to more confident shotmaking from Wawrinka before the unseeded man placed the groundstroke right at Dimitrov’s toes.
Dimitrov hit more winners — 44 to 35 — and had one fewer unforced error in defeat, an indication of his strong play in nearly every game. He forced 14 break points, but converted just one of nine in the final two frames. He did much of his damage in the first set, where he won the first five games and rolled to the lead.
Wawrinka, who lost in the first round a year ago, had recorded no top-50 wins since returning from a knee injury. His road eases considerably: He gets Italian qualifier Thomas Fabbiano in the second round, and could face No. 31 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas after that.
