Wimbledon 2018: Title contender Marin Cilic crumbles in shock two-day defeat by Guido Pella

Pella battled through 3-6 1-6 6-4 7-6 (7/3) 7-5, toppling last year's beaten finalist and number three seed

Twelve months after shedding tears during his defeat in the Wimbledon final Marin Cilic suffered more heartache here on Thursday when he was beaten 3-6, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6, 7-5 by Guido Pella in the biggest upset of the tournament so far.

Cilic, who has been the most consistent performer at Grand Slam level other than Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal over the last two years, was seen by many as the favourite to win his first Wimbledon title, but instead the world No 5 was knocked out in the second round by a 28-year-old Argentinian who had never won a match here until this week.

Having won the first two sets when rain stopped play towards the end of the third set on Wednesday evening, Cilic was a changed man when play resumed. The 29-year-old Croatian kept making uncharacteristic mistakes – he finished the match with 60 unforced errors compared with Pella’s 27 – with eight double faults also contributing to his downfall.

“I just wasn’t feeling as comfortable hitting the ball as I was yesterday,” Cilic said afterwards. “I was not as accurate. I was just missing some balls, some easy balls, giving him a chance to come back.

“He played solid. Obviously he played much better today than yesterday. But I felt I had two different levels from yesterday and today. On a lot of points I had short balls and I was not executing them well. That was probably the decisive thing at the end.”

Cilic’s hopes of beating Federer in last year’s final here were scuppered by a painful blister, but he went much closer to beating the Swiss before losing over five sets in the final of the Australian Open in January. After winning last month’s Fever-Tree Championships at Queen’s Club before arriving at the All England Club, Cilic appeared to be in perfect shape to make a strong challenge here.

Having beaten Yoshihito Nishioka in straight sets in his first match, Cilic had been expected to make similarly short work of Pella, the world No 82. The last time Cilic had lost here to an opponent ranked outside the top 80 was when he went down to Arnaud Clement 10 years ago.

Pella, who is through to the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, recorded the first Wimbledon victory of his career on Monday when he beat Jason Kubler in four sets. He had lost all six of his previous matches against top five opponents.

Although the Argentinian had just broken serve to lead 4-3 in the third set when rain stopped play on Wednesday evening, Cilic hardly looked in any danger, having not had to defend any break points in winning the first two sets.

On the resumption, however, Pella served out for the third set and responded superbly after Cilic had broken to go 3-1 up in the fourth. Having broken back immediately, Pella went on to take control of the tie-break, winning four points in a row from 2-2 and taking it 7-3.

Marin Cilic has crashed out in the first week of Wimbledon (Getty)

Cilic had the chance to draw first blood in the deciding set when he had a break point at 2-2, but his missed return gave Pella the chance to hold. By now the world No 5 was making regular mistakes and at 4-5 a careless forehand error handed Pella two match points. Cilic saved both with big serves, but was in trouble again two games later.

On his third match point Pella went for broke with a forehand return only to mishit it, but yet another unforced error by Cilic gave him a further chance. This time the Argentinian was not to be denied as Cilic netted a forehand to hand him a victory which secures a third-round meeting with the American Mackenzie McDonald, the world No 103.

Cilic said his defeat was “a big disappointment” but denied that pressure had played a part in his defeat. “I was still focusing on my game,” he said. “There was nothing in my mind that said I have to go far or that I'm obliged to do that. For me, yesterday didn't matter.”

He added: “I played really well yesterday and played two great sets. It was a little bit unfortunate to stop last night when I was a break down. Today obviously he won that third set. In the fourth, I just was struggling a little bit to find the rhythm off the ground. I was missing some balls.”

Guido Pella is through to the third round for the very first time (Getty)

Pella said: “Yesterday he was playing so good and hitting the ball so hard that I couldn’t do anything. The rain helped me a lot and today I played differently. I tried to be more aggressive and he started to feel a bit uncomfortable on court. I tried to hit the ball hard and fight for every ball. In the end I think that’s why I won.”