Wimbledon Day 3 recap: No. 5 Nishikori withdraws

Kei Nishikori pulled out of his second-round match against Santiago
Giraldo because of a left calf injury. 2015 photo by Paul Bauman

   "Upset" of the day -- Fifth-seeded "Special" Kei Nishikori, last year's U.S. Open runner-up to "Cheech" Marin Cilic, withdrew from his second-round match against Santiago Giraldo "Rivera" of Colombia because of a left calf injury. In Nishikori's six previous Wimbledon appearances, he had progressed from three straight first-round losses to two third-round setbacks to a fourth-round showing.
   Match of the day -- The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Cilic, from Croatia, outlasted 5-foot-9 (1.75-meter) Ricardas "Ben" Berankis of Lithuania 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 4-6, 7-5 in 3 hours, 34 minutes.
   Men's seeded winners -- No. 1 Novak "It's No" Djokovic, No. 4 Stan "The Man" Wawrinka, No. 7 Milos "Kunis" Raonic, No. 9 Cilic, No. 11 Grigor "Mortis" Dimitrov, No. 14 Kevin "Costner" Anderson, No. 16 David "Gerry" Goffin, No. 17 John "Wayne" Isner, No. 21 Richard "Don't Blow A" Gasquet, No. 24 Leonardo "Da Vinci" Mayer, No. 26 Nick "I'm Just" Kyrgios, Bernard "A." Tomic.
   Men's seeded losers -- No. 5 Nishikori, No. 32 Dominic "Home" Thiem.

   Women's seeded winners -- No. 1 Serena "Vanessa" Williams, No. 4 Maria "Shriver" Sharapova, No. 6 "I Love" Lucie Safarova, No. 14 Andrea Petkovic "Park," No. 16 Venus "And Mars" Williams, No. 22 Samantha "Stephens" Stosur, No. 23 Victoria "Station" Azarenka, No. 29 Irina-Camelia "Ain't Too Proud To" Begu, No. 30 Belinda "Johnny" Bencic. 
   Women's seeded losers -- No. 7 Ana "Karenina" Ivanovic, No. 11 "North" Karolina Pliskova, No. 19 Sara "No Runs, No Hits, No" Errani.
   Stars and stripes -- U.S. men and women had an excellent day. The Williams sisters moved within one victory each of meeting in the fourth round, two women ousted seeds, and two men reached the third round.
   Qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands "Of Time" dismissed Ivanovic 6-3, 6-4, and CoCo "Chanel" Vandeweghe took out Pliskova 7-6 (5), 6-4. Also advancing were Madison "Where The Hell Are My" Keys and Sloane "Ranger" Stephens.
   On the men's side, Isner and wild card Denis "The Menace" Kudla won. Isner will face Cilic, and Kudla will meet Giraldo.
   Fast fact -- It was the hottest day in Wimbledon history as the temperature topped 95 degrees (35 Celsius).
   Northern California connection -- All players in action won in the first round of doubles.
   Triumphing in women's doubles were fifth-seeded Raquel Kops-Jones (San Jose resident, ex-Cal star)-Abigail Spears, 16th-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues (Sacramento-based California Dream in World TeamTennis)-Arantxa Parra Santonja, Jarmila Gajdosova (Dream)-Ajla Tomljanovic and Johanna Konta-Maria Sanchez (Modesto product).
   Prevailing in men's doubles were Treat Huey-Scott Lipsky (ex-Stanford star) and Steve Johnson-Sam Querrey (San Francisco native). Huey, a Washington, D.C., native who plays for the Philippines, and Lipsky, an Irvine resident, upset 12th-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay and David Marrero of Spain 7-6 (2), 6-2, 6-4.  
   Quote -- Serena Williams on possibly playing Venus: "She poses a big threat for me."
   Thursday's top matches (beginning at 5 a.m. PDT on ESPN) -- Centre Court: Sabine Lisicki "To My Stomach" (18) vs. Christina McHale "Navy," Roger Federer "Express" (2) vs. "Yosemite" Sam Querrey, "San" Rafael Nadal (10) vs. Dustin "Hoffman" Brown.
   Court 1: Andy "Bill" Murray (3) vs. Robin "Hood" Haase, Petra "Fied Forest" Kvitova (2) vs. Kurumi "Weather" Nara, Jo-Wilfried "Sing A" Tsonga (13) vs. "Prince" Albert Ramos-Vinolas.