Stan Wawrinka and Canada’s Milos Raonic slumped to straight-sets losses in the first round of the Queen’s grass-court tournament on Tuesday in a blow to their preparations for Wimbledon.
The second-seeded Wawrinka was beaten by big-serving Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (5), 7-5, with the Spanish player sealing victory off a net cord from a sliced backhand return.
Wawrinka, the runner-up to Rafael Nadal at the French Open, appeared to be struggling with a left knee injury in the second set.
While Wawrinka’s exit wasn’t too much of a surprise, given Lopez’s recent form and liking for grass, the early departure of third-seeded Raonic in west London certainly was.
Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., was last year’s runner-up at Queen’s and Wimbledon. He lost 7-6 (5), 7-6 (8) to No. 698-ranked Thanasi Kokkinakis, who was playing only his sixth singles since November 2015 because of injury problems.
It was the first win over a top-10 opponent for the Australian, who trailed 6-3 in the second-set tiebreaker but won on his third match point with a backhand winner into the corner.
‘It’s huge for me’
“It’s a big frustration,” said Raonic, who failed to convert any of his nine break-point opportunities. “Obviously it would have been a lot easier scheduling everything if I was to be here and have many more matches ahead of me.”
It was the first win over a top-10 opponent for the 21-year-old Australian, who has been ravaged by injury problems for the past 22 months. He only played one match in 2016 because of a shoulder problem, and has also missed most of this year because of injury.
“It’s everything. It’s huge for me,” Kokkinakis said. “I’ve been out for so long.”
Wimbledon starts on July 3.
Earlier, Andy Murray was handed a new opponent for his first-round match after Aljaz Bedene withdrew because of a wrist injury.
Murray will now play Jordan Thompson, an Australian player ranked No. 90. Thompson lost to Jeremy Chardy in qualifying on Sunday.
French player Julien Benneteau advanced to the last 16 by beating James Ward 6-2, 6-2.
