Max Purcell’s hopes of causing an early sensation at Wimbledon have quickly evaporated on the opening morning of the Championships.
Even as the Australian contingent were still coming to terms with news of Nick Kyrgios’ late eve-of-tournament withdrawal, the Wimbledon men’s doubles champion Purcell was swiftly blown away on No.3 court by No.7 seed Andrey Rublev on Monday.
Purcell had talked up his chances of an upset, adamant that he wasn’t here to “make up the numbers”. But apart from one purple patch at the start of the second set, he was outplayed by the Russian 6-3 7-5 6-4 in just over an hour and a half.
In an extraordinary turnaround as Purcell, the Australian No.3, led 5-2 in the second set and looked poised to level the match, the Sydneysider then lost the plot, surrendering six games in a row in a sequence that included losing 19 consecutive points.
The transformation had been striking as the 25-year-old Purcell had played some brilliant tennis in the second set, upping his level with some excellent slicing and dicing, incisive volleying and the odd lovely lob.
He even threw in an underarm serve – rather unsuccessfully – as the variety in his game seemed to rattle Rublev, who started chuntering to himself unhappily.
But when the game was played on the Russian’s terms from the backcourt, his power and accuracy always had Purcell on the backfoot.
Purcell, who won the men’s doubles with Matt Ebden last year, will now turn his attentions to that event, playing alongside Jordan Thompson, who was also in singles action on Monday.
