Tennis found an emerging star in Janko Tipsarevic after the unheralded Serbian pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the men’s singles event in Wimbledon by edging out fifth seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile.
It was an edge-of-the-seat five set thriller between Tipsarevic and Gonzalez and in the end, it was the Serbian who had the last laugh as he won the tie 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 8-6.
Tipsarevic clearly had little respect for his opponent’s reputation and the Serbian began well, winning two of the first three sets to take an upper hand before rain interrupted play.
After play resumed, Gonzalez raised his game and pocketed the fourth set to draw parity and stretch the see-saw battle to the fifth set. Gonzalez in fact seemed all set to win the match as he took a 5-2 lead in the decider but Tipsarevic had other plan. The 23-year-old Serbian returned from the brink of a defeat saved a match point before winning the set to oust Gonzalez.
The entire Centre Court crowd was on its feet to give a standing ovation to the Serbian and Tipsarevic was also ecstatic after winning a match at the legendary court.
He said
Ever since I was a kid, my dream was to win matches on Centre Court at Wimbledon because for me this is the most special tournament in the world.
Tipsarevic now meets Juan Carlos Ferrero in the next round and it would be a good opportunity for the youngster to avenge his last year’s Australian Open defeat against Ferrero.
