LONDON, July 1, 2016

World number eight Dominic Thiem has become the highest male seed to be eliminated at Wimbledon this year. In the second round, the 22-year-old Austrian lost a three set tie-break-battle against Jiri Vesely on Court 1 on Thursday evening.

Thiem gained a surprisingly comfortable victory over Gerry Weber Open champion Florian Mayer on Wednesday, winning 7-5, 6-4, 6-4, but couldn’t repeat his strong performance against the Czech. Vesely dictated the match with his strong serve, firing 14 aces. The 22-year-old lefty won the tie-breaks 7-4, 7-5, 7-3 to seal victory in two hours and 45 minutes.

Ahead of the All England Championships, Thiem has already proved that he feels comfortable on the grass by lifting the trophy of the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart and reaching the semi-finals of the ATP 500 event in Halle.

“Of course I am disappointed,” Thiem told afterwards. “I didn’t serve well today but Jiri played a decent match. His service games were great throughout the encounter. He was simply the better player today.”

Vesely celebrated his first match win over the Austrian in the pair’s third tour meeting.

“It was a tough match. Maybe I was a bit more relaxed in the decisive moments. It was a big win for me,” the world number 64 said. Vesely will next face the tournament’s number 31 Joao Sousa from Portugal.

In the women’s draw, second seed Garbine Muguruza fell to world number 124 Jana Cepelova. The Slovakian was more solid on her second serve, winning 68% of the services. Muguruza only 20%. Cepelova capitalized on all of her four break point opportunities to celebrate victory in only 58 minutes. She will next play the tournament’s number 28 Lucie Safarova.