On another rain-affected day at The Queen’s Club, Stan Wawrinka, Milos Raonic and Lucas Pouille all reached the second round, while several other players were left frustrated by the weather and will be forced to finish their round one matches on Thursday.
Stan Wawrinka ended the ten-match winning streak of Dan Evans with a very solid performance, advancing 6-3, 6-4. The No. 7 seed broke Evans in the Brit’s first service game of the match, and held serve until a rain delay interrupted the action at 5-3 in the first set. After the resumption of play, Wawrinka only dropped five points on serve for the remainder of the match to advance to the second round.
Elsewhere, Juan Martin Del Potro won his first match at Barons Court since 2013 by defeating Next Gen star Denis Shapovalov in the day’s opening match, but the Argentinian was then forced to withdraw from both singles and doubles with a right knee injury.
"It is a great shame that Juan Martin has been forced to withdraw", said tournament director Stephen Farrow. "The crowd loves him here, just as they do all over the world, and we know how much he wanted to make a run. We wish him a full and speedy recovery, and hope to see him next year."
The beneficiary of the Del Potro’s withdrawal was 2017 champion Feliciano Lopez, who fought back on Wednesday after dropping the first set tiebreak against Marton Fucsovics, to advance 6-7, 6-3, 6-4. “It was difficult for me to play,” Lopez said after the match. “I'm very happy that I went through a difficult situation when I was a set and a break down and I made it.”
The final match on Centre Court was interrupted by rain, and will be continued on Day 4. Stefanos Tsitsipas, the top seed, won the first set 6-3 against British No. 1 Kyle Edmund. When the rain came, the second set was level at three games all.
That match will resume on Thursday as part of an exciting Day 4 Order of Play. The resumption of Tsitsipas and Edmund on Centre Court will follow the second round match between defending champion Marin Cilic and Queen’s Club debutant Diego Schwartzman. Additionally, Stan Wawrinka and 2007 finalist Nicolas Mahut will compete for a spot in Friday’s quarter-finals, before the winner of Tsitsipas and Edmund return to Centre Court to take on Frenchman Jeremy Chardy. Grigor Dimitrov and Felix Auger-Aliassime will also take to the court for their highly-anticipated first round encounter, as well as Nick Kyrgios against Roberto Carballes Baena, the lucky loser who has replaced the injured Adrian Mannarino.
Andy Murray and Feliciano Lopez will contest the final match on Centre Court against Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah. After his singles win on Wednesday, Lopez spoke of his excitement for the match.
“Andy is one of the best players in the history of tennis, and I'm very lucky to be playing this week with him, even more at this special tournament. I won here. This is a very special place for me. We are in the UK. So it's a very exciting moment.”