Andy Murray’s withdrawal from the Wimbledon men’s singles championships opened the door for a lucky loser, who went on to suffer another painful defeat in the first round.
After an eventful few days in SW19, Belgian tennis player David Goffin lost in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, a position he had held for a while, and eventually fell out of the top 100. This time around, Goffin will have to go through qualifying. Goffin has made it to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon twice, most recently in 2022.
Goffin’s opponent was Tomas Machac, and it appeared as though the Belgian would take full advantage, but he suffered a dramatic collapse to seize defeat from the jaws of victory. Having advanced through his first two qualifiers, he was pipped by Mattia Bellucci and missed out on a spot in the main draw, but Andy Murray’s late withdrawal gave him another opportunity.
Play ended Tuesday night with a 6-3, 4-2 lead for Goffin, who came back on Wednesday to win two sets. Machac battled back to force a fifth set decider, but it appeared to be over when Goffin took a 5-0 lead in that set.
Machac, however, had other intentions as he managed to win five straight games. After a tie-break, the Czech won to advance to face Roman Safiullin in the second round.
One fan wrote: “This set has ended the career of David Goffin oh my god the worst choke I have ever seen” in response to the unrelenting criticism on social media.
A second person said, “David Goffin is about to cap off the most insane choke job you will ever see in professional sports,” while a third person described it as “the biggest choke in tennis history”.
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