Stan Wawrinka suffers shock first-round exit to Daniil Medvedev

It will not end the debates about whether the “Big Four” should become the “Big Five”, but Stan Wawrinka provided a reminder here of how he has rarely been able to match the consistency of his biggest rivals.

The world No 3 arrived at the All England Club knowing that he needed the Wimbledon title to complete his Grand Slam collection, but once again demonstrated his failings on grass as he went down 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to Daniil Medvedev, a talented 21-year-old Russian.

Wawrinka may have three Grand Slam titles to his name, but Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have usually had the edge over him in terms of their ability to perform well throughout the year.

The 32-year-old Swiss has been dealing with a knee problem since losing first time out in the Aegon Championships at Queen’s Club a fortnight ago and never looked comfortable here.

“For sure I wasn't feeling the way I wanted to feel,” Wawrinka said after his sixth first-round defeat at Wimbledon. “But I played against a great player who I think was confident today, was playing well, was playing faster. It was a tough loss.”

He added: “Today was tough. I was expecting to feel a little bit better. When I play a player playing that level, it's difficult to win. He went for it, was playing well, so it was a tough, tough day.

“Apparently grass is not the best surface for my knee. I need to figure out exactly what the problem is now, what I'm going to do, and come back on the tennis court when I will not feel any pain.”

Medvedev, who was described by Wawrinka as “a really dangerous player”, is competing in his first Wimbledon. He had never previously won a match at Grand Slam level. In his only two previous appearances in Grand Slam tournaments earlier this year he had lost in the first round at both the Australian Open and French Open.

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On this occasion, however, the world No 49 was simply too good for Wawrinka, who has never gone beyond the quarter-finals in his 13 visits to Wimbledon.

Although he has won a Grand Slam title in each of the last three years – the Australian Open in 2014, the French Open in 2015 and the US Open last year – Wawrinka has rarely performed at his best here. He has won 38 matches at both the French and US Opens and 36 at the Australian Open but only 18 at Wimbledon.

Medvedev lost to Britain’s Marcus Willis in the final round of qualifying last year, which was his only previous attempt to play here. However, he proved his grass-court prowess with some good performances in warm-up tournaments, particularly at the Aegon International at Eastbourne, where he reached the semi-finals. It was on the strength of those results that he broke into the world’s top 50 for the first time this week.

Although Wawrinka had lost to Feliciano Lopez at Queen’s Club a fortnight ago, he had arrived here as the French Open runner-up, having lost to Nadal in the final at Roland Garros just three weeks ago. At 32 he had been the oldest man to reach the French Open final for 42 years.

The Swiss, who was making his 50th consecutive appearance at a Grand Slam tournament, appeared to have got himself back in the match against Medvedev when he levelled the contest at one set apiece, but the Russian quickly resumed control.

At the end Medvedev knelt down to kiss the grass. “I'm just really happy, my first Grand Slam win, Centre Court of Wimbledon,” he said. “Even one year ago, when I was 250 in the rankings, if someone had told me I would play on Centre Court – and not even win - I would have told them they were joking.

“I have had a really great grass-court season. I knew Stan had some problems at Queen's so I knew I would have my chance. It's my favourite tournament, my first Grand Slam win, so I had to kiss the grass.”

Tommy Haas, playing what will presumably be his last Wimbledon at the age of 39, was unable to take advantage of his wild card and was beaten 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 by Belgium’s Ruben Bemelmans.