Alexander Zverev wanted to stick around London for at least a week, but his 2025 Wimbledon campaign crashed out in the very first round.
The German third seed got placed in the bottom half of the draw, which meant he had to play on Monday right away. His match against Arthur Rinderknech was scheduled as the final match on Centre Court.
From the moment it started, you could tell this one wasn’t finishing in a single day.
| Name | Age | Points | Stats 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Zverev | 28 | 6,885 | 34 - 10 |
Both guys had their chances early on. Rinderknech grabbed two break points in the opening game but couldn’t convert them. Then Zverev got five break point opportunities throughout the set.
He couldn’t use any of them either.
That forced a tiebreak to settle the first set, and it was the underdog Frenchman who struck first. Rinderknech won it 7-3, taking the opening set and putting the world No. 3 on the back foot.
Winning that first set clearly pumped up Rinderknech. He kept playing solid tennis in the second, and when he led 5-4, he actually had a set point to go up 2-0 in the match.
But Zverev saved it and pushed things to another tiebreak.
Even then, Rinderknech looked like he had it wrapped up. He led 6-5, then 7-6, with two more chances to take a commanding 2-0 lead. But Zverev somehow clawed back, winning the last three points to snatch the tiebreak 10-8.
The match got postponed at 11 p.m. due to Wimbledon’s curfew.
The players came back Tuesday afternoon, right after defending women’s champion Barbora Krejcikova beat Alexandra Eala in her opener.
The big question was whether Rinderknech could keep this level up on a different day with different conditions. He answered that pretty quickly, grabbing two break point chances in the very first game back.
Just like in the opening set, though, the Frenchman couldn’t convert those early opportunities.
This time it didn’t matter. Rinderknech managed to break later in the set, and not just once but twice. He took the third set 6-3, moving within one set of a massive upset.
Rinderknech Stays Aggressive
The momentum kept rolling in the fourth set. Rinderknech created three chances to break Zverev’s serve, but after missing those in the second game, the German started taking control.
Well, sort of.
Zverev had four break points of his own in that fourth set, but even that wasn’t enough to get the break. Another tiebreak it was, and Rinderknech looked like he was about to close it out when he led 5-3.
For a moment, his dream of beating a top-three player on Centre Court seemed to slip away. Zverev rattled off four straight points to win the tiebreak 7-5, forcing a fifth set.
But Rinderknech was on a mission.
He broke Zverev’s serve early in the decider and just held on from there. Game after game, he kept his nerve, serving out the match to complete a stunning upset.
Final score: 7-6(3), 6-7(8), 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4.
It was already the second major shock of Tuesday. Earlier, Jessica Pegula – the women’s third seed – also got knocked out in the first round.
Not exactly the start either of the third seeds were hoping for at the All England Club.
