Wimbledon: Unseeded Reilly Opelka beats Stan Wawrinka

In a Wimbledon tournament filled with early upsets, Reilly Opelka pulled off another one Wednesday in the second round.

The 6-foot-11 American with the big serve defeated three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 8-6 on No. 2 Court.

“At first I had a lot of success serving and volleying, so I kept with that,” Opelka said. “And then as he kind of picked up on what I was doing and started reading my serve a little bit, it was more difficult for me to win points at the net. So I had to play, played a lot of tennis on the baseline today.”

Opelka is making his debut at Wimbledon, and playing in only his fourth Grand Slam tournament. He had never before reached the third round at any major. Wawrinka, who has won each of the other three major titles but has never been past the quarterfinals at the All England Club, also lost in the second round at Wimbledon last year.

On Monday, both No. 6 Alexander Zverev and No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas were eliminated. No. 5 Dominic Thiem, a French Open finalist the past two years, followed them out of the tournament on Tuesday.

The 21-year-old Opelka, who is unseeded, finished the match against Wawrinka with 23 aces, with several serves topping 140 mph. One, at 142 mph, tied with Zverev for the fastest of the tournament so far.

“I had some chance,” Wawrinka said. “I start a little bit slow. I was a bit hesitating, not really moving well enough. At the end he went for it. He went bigger than me and he deserved to win.”

Opelka will next face 2016 Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic in the third round on Friday. The 15th-seeded Canadian beat Robin Haase 7-6 (1), 7-5, 7-6 (4).

Fernando Verdasco came from two sets down to knock Kyle Edmund out of Wimbledon and reach the third round for the first time since 2015.

Verdasco won 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-4 on Centre Court.

With Andy Murray not playing singles, Edmund was Britain’s highest-seeded player in the men’s draw at No. 30. However, he appeared to aggravate an old right knee injury when he slipped on the grass near the end of the third set and needed a medical timeout.

Verdasco reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2013 but had lost in the first round in each of the last three years.

Two-time major champion Victoria Azarenka, third-seeded Karolina Pliskova and eighth-seeded Elina Svitolina all advanced in the women’s draw, but only two of them had an easy time getting to the third round.

Azarenka, who won the Australian Open title in 2012 and 2013, beat Ajla Tomljanovic 6-2, 6-0, while Pliskova defeated Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig 6-0, 6-4.

Svitolina, on the other hand, was two points from losing to Margarita Gasparyan in the second set but eventually won when her opponent retired with an injury at 5-7, 6-5.

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Gasparyan was serving at 5-5, 0-15 in the second set when she was injured. She clutched her right thigh after a serve and eventually dropped to the court, lying along the baseline. A trainer attended to Gasparyan, and Svitolina came over to check on her opponent, bringing her a bottle of water.

When play resumed, Svitolina broke to lead 6-5 and served for the second set, but Gasparyan retired from the match while trailing 40-15 in that game.

Former No. 1 Simona Halep also advanced, beating Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. Also, No. 10-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia advanced by beating Feliciano Lopez 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 on No. 1 Court.

Later, American teenager Coco Gauff will follow her upset win over Venus Williams with a second-round match against Magdalena Rybarikova. Also, defending champion Novak Djokovic will face Dennis Kudla of the U.S.