Guido Pella stages fightback to beat third seed Cilic

BBC & Amazon Prime, 11.30am Friday

The outright betting on Wimbledon this year is fast turning into a bookmakers' benefit with men's singles third seed Marin Cilic blowing a two-set lead to lose 3-6 1-6 6-4 7-6 7-5 to unheralded Guido Pella in one of the most amazing Grand Slam fightbacks in recent memory.

Cilic, runner-up to Roger Federer at the All England Club last year, led by two sets to nil and was on serve in set three when the pair returned after failing to finish their Court One clash on Wednesday.

But in a total match of two halves – the Croat had been playing beautifully in its early exchanges – Pella with the help of a below-par Cilic on resumption turned the match on its head to set up a third-round date with American Mackenzie McDonald.

Pella was backed at a high of 250 on Betfair's exchange, while more than £208,000 was matched on Cilic at 1.01 and more than £275,000 traded at 1.02.

British interest in the women's singles is at an end after the home nation's number one Johanna Konta was defeated 6-3 6-4 by Dominika Cibulkova.

World number 32 Cibulkova, losing finalist in the 2014 Australian Open, has been annoyed at losing what she thought was her rightful seeding in the main draw to Serena Williams, who was promoted to 25th seed despite being ranked only 183rd in the world before the Slam started.

The slight looks to be pushing Slovakian ace Cibulkova on to good things and she may actually end up being grateful for her relegation.
Konta, who is not performing as well as she was in 2017, gave it plenty of effort but will now look to revive her disappointing campaign in the US Open hardcourt series.

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