Wu Yibing encounters health scare and falls to Frances Tiafoe on Wimbledon debut

American Frances Tiafoe, the No 10 seed, advanced to the second round of Wimbledon by beating Chinese Yibing Wu 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-4 in a complicated contest at the All England Club in London on Wednesday.

It took three days for the American to get on the court at Wimbledon, and the match was peppered with a few rain delays once the pair got started on No.3 Court.

“It’s been tough,” he said. “It’s obviously not easy.”

The 10th-seeded American fired 38 winners and 14 aces to win in two hours and 30 minutes.

Tiafoe – I’m here to make some noise

Echoing what he’s been saying ever since he broke out last September and reached the semi-finals of the US Open, Tiafoe stressed that he believes he can go all the way and win a Wimbledon title. Not in the future, but this year.

“Obviously now I really feel like I have a shot at it,” he said. “I mean, before I was like I want to do well but that’s like wishful thinking. Now I’m like here to make some noise.

I think the Open changed my mindset for a lot of tournaments in general. I mean, the first few slams this year, you know, I had similar-type losses, which I thought if I won that match I could have went very deep.

But it’s all about the big ones, especially when you’re sitting where I’m sitting at now. If I want to keep rising, top 5, top 3, whatever case, it’s got to happen here at these events.

Wu felt better, finished the match

Wu had a health scare during the match and reportedly collapsed in the tunnel, which caused a delay in the match.

“He told me that his heart was skipping a beat,” Tiafoe said. “Having problems with his heart and stuff. Felt like he was collapsing in there. He’s like, I’m gonna try and play. Once he said that, I was like, Oh, we’re about to have a war. He’s going to start coming out and playing loose, which we did.”

“I was happy he felt all right and he was able to finish the match and played a high level. I thought the last two sets was super high level.”

Frances Tiafoe was hyping the crowd up after this point 😤#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/Kw8mn3ptE7

— ESPN (@espn) July 5, 2023

Tiafoe, ranked No 10, will face the winner of the match between Swiss qualifier Dominic Stricker and Australian Alexei Popyrin next.

London (Grand Slam), other first-round results (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, grass, most recent results first):

• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs. Arthur Fils
• Alexander Zverev vs. Gijs Brouwer
• Marco Cecchinato vs. Nicolas Jarry
• Zhizhen Zhang vs. Botic van de Zandschulp
• Maxime Cressy vs. Laslo Djere
• Matteo Arnaldi vs. Roberto Carballes Baena
• Kimmer Coppejans vs. Alex De Minaur
• Marc-Andrea Huesler vs. Yosuke Watanuki
• Jason Kubler vs. Ugo Humbert
• Christopher O’Connell vs. Hamad Medjedovic
• Ben Shelton vs. Taro Daniel
• Christopher Eubanks vs. Thiago Monteiro
• Marton Fucsovics vs. Tallon Griekspoor
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Alexander Shevchenko
• Matteo Berrettini vs. Lorenzo Sonego
• Ilya Ivashka vs. Federico Coria
• George Loffhagen vs. Holger Rune
• Jiri Vesely vs. Sebastian Korda
• Marcos Giron vs. Hugo Dellien
• Denis Shapovalov vs. Radu Albot: wednesday
• Dominic Thiem vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas: wednesday
• Taylor Fritz (9) beat Yannick Hanfmann: 6-4, 2-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3
• Shintaro Mochizuki vs. Tommy Paul: wednesday
• Roman Safiullin vs. Roberto Bautista Agut: wednesday
• Benjamin Bonzi vs. Harold Mayot: wednesday
• Alexandre Muller vs. Arthur Rinderknech: wednesday
• Borna Coric vs. Guido Pella: wednesday
• Lloyd Harris vs. Gregoire Barrere: wednesday
• Milos Raonic vs. Dennis Novak: wednesday
• Jiri Lehecka beat Sebastian Ofner (WC): 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Nuno Borges: wednesday
• Dominic Stricker vs. Alexei Popyrin: wednesday
• Daniil Medvedev (3) beat Arthur Fery (WC): 7-5, 6-4, 6-3
• Grigor Dimitrov (21) beat Sho Shimabukuro (Q): 6-1, 6-2, 6-1
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry (29) beat Bernabe Zapata Miralles: 6-7 (5), 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5
• Quentin Halys beat Daniel Evans (27): 6-2, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4
• Cameron Norrie (12) beat Tomas Machac (Q): 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
• Andy Murray beat Ryan Peniston (WC): 6-3, 6-0, 6-1
• Carlos Alcaraz (1) beat Jeremy Chardy: 6-0, 6-2, 7-5
• Jannik Sinner (8) beat Juan Manuel Cerundolo: 6-2, 6-2, 6-2
• Daniel Elahi Galan beat Yoshihito Nishioka (24): 6-4, 6-3, 6-3
• Stan Wawrinka beat Emil Ruusuvuori: 7-5, 7-5, 6-4
• Diego Schwartzman beat Miomir Kecmanovic: 6-0, 6-3, 6-4
• Alexander Bublik (23) beat Mackenzie McDonald: 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
• Aleksandar Vukic beat Daniel Altmaier: 6-3, 7-6 (1), 3-6, 7-5
• Oscar Otte (Q) beat Dominik Koepfer: 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (9)
• Mikael Ymer beat Alex Molcan: 6-3, 6-3, 6-4
• Jan Choinski (WC) beat Dusan Lajovic: 5-7, 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-2
• Casper Ruud (4) beat Laurent Lokoli (Q): 6-1, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3
• Jaume Munar beat John Isner: 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4
• J.J. Wolf beat Enzo Couacaud (Q): 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Liam Broady (WC) beat Constant Lestienne: 6-1, 6-3, 7-5
• David Goffin (WC) beat Fabian Marozsan (LL): 6-2, 5-7, 6-2, 6-0
• Corentin Moutet beat Richard Gasquet: 6-3, 7-5, 7-5
• Michael Mmoh (LL) beat Felix Auger-Aliassime (11): 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 6-4
• Novak Djokovic (2) beat Pedro Cachin: 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Hubert Hurkacz (17) beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas: 6-1, 6-4, 6-4
• Maximilian Marterer beat Borna Gojo: 7-5, 6-7 (8), 6-3, 6-4
• Andrey Rublev (7) beat Max Purcell: 6-3, 7-5, 6-4
• Jordan Thompson beat Brandon Nakashima: 2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-3
• Lorenzo Musetti (14) beat Juan Pablo Varillas: 6-3, 6-1, 7-5
• Tomas Barrios Vera (Q) beat Sebastian Baez: 7-6 (7), 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2)
• Aslan Karatsev beat Luca Van Assche: 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2, 6-4