Two players with impressive records suffered early exits in Wimbledon Qualifying. Former Top 10 star and Roland Garros semi-finalist Jurgen Melzer fell in the first round to Alex De Minaur, whilst Santiago Giraldo also lost to a young talent.
Things had looked good for Melzer when the Austrian appeared to be control by winning the first set handily 6-2. However the Austrian, who was once known for having one of the biggest forehands in the game, came undone against young Australian Alex De Minaur.
De Minuar won the final two sets 6-3, 6-3 as he looks to try and make his first Wimbledon main draw. Playing a Melzer seems to be good luck for De Minaur. He beat Jurgen’s younger brother Gerald for his first main draw grand slam victory as a wildcard at this year’s Australian Open.
Second seed in qualifying Santiago Giraldo was beaten by another youngster Stefanos Tsitsipas. Just as in the De Minaur match, Tsitsipas showed great tenacity to comeback from a set down to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Other winners included Britain’s Alexander Ward who defeated Egor Gerasimov 1-6, 7-5, 6-3. 6th seed Go Soeda faced break points at 15-40 down at 7-7 in the decider. He held, and then broke Inigo Cervantes for a 3-6, 7-5, 9-7 win.
There were wins for 20th seed Paul-Henri Mathieu, 21st seed Taylor Fritz, 5th seed Andrey Rublev, and 23rd seed Peter Gojowczyk. 3rd and 4th seeds Tennys Sandgren and Lukas Lacko had few problems in quick wins.
7th seed Blaz Kavcic was forced to retire when trailing Riccardo Bellotti 6-1, 3-0. 24th seed Stephane Robert has seen his ranking plummet this year, and he was beaten by Australia’s Andrew Whittington. 8th seed Darian King won in straight sets, as did Tim Smyczek and Bradley Klahn.
Simone Bolelli outlasted Sam Groth 11-9 in the third. Groth had called for the trainer during the match and appeared to be troubled by injury.
