Hull's Paul Jubb suffers agonising first round defeat at Wimbledon
24 year old lost in five sets to big-hitting Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild
Hull's Paul Jubb missed out on a first Wimbledon win in agonising fashion, falling in five sets to big-hitting Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild.
Jubb led by two sets to love and had a match point in the third-set tie-break but he could not take it and Seyboth Wild fought back to win 1-6 3-6 7-6 (6) 6-4 7-5.
The match could not have begun better for Jubb, who came into the tournament in great form after reaching his first ATP Tour semi-final in Majorca last week, beating top-20 star Ben Shelton along the way.
The 24-year-old raced into a 4-0 lead on a packed Court 14, with Seyboth Wild resorting to an underarm serve as early as the seventh game.
Jubb then moved into a 3-0 lead in the second set and survived five break points and a rain delay to take full control of the contest.
He was also 2-0 up in the third set but from there the tide began to turn. Seyboth Wild fought back, saving a match point at 5-6 in the tie-break, before clinching it when he successfully challenged a Jubb backhand which was adjudged to have missed the line by the narrowest of margins.
The Brazilian, ranked 127 places higher than Jubb at 74 in the world, is inexperienced on grass but he had found his feet and he took the fourth set after another rain delay.
Jubb clung on grimly in the fifth, saving five match points at 3-5 and then breaking Seyboth Wild with a backhand winner on to the baseline. He could not hold his own serve, though, and with that his chance was gone.
The Hull player will be bitterly disappointed having lost in five sets to Nick Kyrgios two years ago before missing last year's Wimbledon through injury.