Eight players have pulled out of Wimbledon — including Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Victoria Azarenka, the man who stunned Rafael Nadal in the 1st round, and the American who won the longest match in tennis history. Two others had to cut short their campaign on Tuesday due to injuries.

The All England Club’s medical rooms were overflowing as the third day of Wimbledon resembled a casualty ward with French sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Rafa Nadal’s conqueror Steve Darcis, Victoria Azarenka and Marin Cilic being amongst seven players forced out with injury. A eighth player withdrew from the tournament due to ‘tiredness’.

The 28-year-old Tsonga, a semi-finalist in 2012, needed a medical time-out to have his left knee taped just after he had dropped the second set, 6-3.

Tsonga had won the first set, 6-3.

But when he dropped the third set 6-3, he gave up.

The French star was the seventh player to see his Wimbledon campaign ended by injury on Wednesday.

Just moments before Tsonga’s retirement, Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova withdrew from her second round clash against 2011 champion Petra Kvitova, the eighth seed, with a right arm injury.

The start of Day 3 was less about the tennis results and more about a casualty list that included Azarenka, Darcis and John Isner.

Also withdrawing with injuries were 10th-seeded Marin Cilic (left knee) and 2006 quarterfinalist Radek Stepanek (left hamstring).

Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber cited ‘tiredness’ while retiring in the fifth set of his clash against Croatian Ivan Dodig today. The German later revealed that he was suffering the effects of flu and felt unable to continue.

On Tuesday, Argentine Guido Pella and Switzerland’s Romina Oprandi had to cut short their Wimbledon campaign due to injuries.

While Pella was carried off court on a stretcher after a nasty fall, Oprandi retired after injuring her arm.

World number two and Australian Open champion Azarenka withdrew just minutes before she was due on Centre Court to face Italian veteran Flavia Pennetta for a place in the third round.

A right knee injury, suffered in a fall during her first round win over Maria Joao Koehler of Portugal on Monday which left her in tears and requiring 10 minutes of treatment, put paid to her hopes after an MRI scan showed extensive bruising to the knee.

Her fall happened on Court One, the same arena where Darcis knocked out Nadal.