As Ashleigh Barty basks in the glory of Wimbledon’s top seeding, another Australian tennis prodigy is one tantalising win away from fighting his way into the men’s draw in vastly different fashion.
Continuing his own breakout season, exciting teenage prospect Alexei Popyrin advanced to the final round of qualifying in London with a 6-1 3-6 6-1 victory over German Mats Moraing.
The 2017 French Open junior champion narrowly missed last month’s direct-entry cut-off mark but cracked the world’s top 100 this week for the first time, having reach the third round of this year’s Australian Open as a wildcard.
“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve dreamed of playing the main draw of Wimbledon,” Popyrin said.
“So obviously getting in the hard way through qualifying would be a great achievement for me.”
Popyrin hired 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash as a coaching consultant for the grass-court season, with the partnership reaping immediate rewards.
The big-serving 19-year-old successfully qualified for the main draw in Stuttgart this month before losing in a third-set tiebreaker to Milos Raonic, a former finalist at the All England Club.
“I reckon Raonic is one of the best grass-court players we have in our game right now so it just gave me great confidence coming into this tournament,” Popyrin said.
“I hadn’t played on grass for three years so I didn’t know what to expect for myself but I’m starting to like it.
“I like all surfaces now.”
Popyrin, who plays American Bjorn Fratangelo on Thursday, is one of four Australians through to the final round of qualifying at Roehampton.
Jason Kubler beat Slovakian Norbert Gombos 7-6 (7-5 7-6 (7-1) in his second-round match, while grand slam rookie Andrew Harris toppled Roger Federer’s one-time Wimbledon slayer Sergiy Stakhovsky 3-6 6-3 6-3 in one of the most significant wins of the 25-year-old’s career.
Arina Rodionova, Australia’s best performer at Wimbledon two years ago, advanced in the women’s event with a 6-2 6-4 win over Misaki Doi.
But Alex Bolt’s hopes of qualifying for tennis’s biggest event for the second straight year came to a shuddering halt.
Bolt, like Popyrin a third-round revelation at Melbourne Park in January, lost 6-4 6-2 to American Dennis Novak.
Priscilla Hon, Kaylah McPhee, James Duckworth, Marc Polmans, John-Patrick Smith and racquet-smashing Akira Santillan also fell at the second qualifying hurdle on Wednesday.
