The second day of men's qualifying at the Bank of England Sports Centre in Roehampton saw the seeded players get the better of their lesser ranked opponents for the most part but it also had it's share of shocks with a few matches not going with the script. With Wimbledon less than a week away, today showed that some players are really taking the initiative to fill those qualifying spots and grab themselves a place in the main draw starting next Monday at the All England Club.
The last remaining Brits exited the competition with Marco Chiudinelli getting the better of Oliver Golding in the end. Golding made a good start, immediately breaking the Swiss to open the match and although he was broken back straight away, he held his nerve and fought, eventually taking the first set 6-3. Chiudinelli fought back to capture the second set and then pushed on raising his level to beat the Briton 3-6 6-4 6-4. Chiudinelli.
The final qualifying round sees Chiudinelli facing Yuichi Sugita for a place in the main draw for the first time since 2010. It would be Sugita's first ever grand slam main draw appearance if he is to achieve the victory Thursday. Aussie born Brit Brydan Klein also won the first set against his American opponent Denis Kudla, but it wasn't to be as Kudla fought back to take the next two sets with the loss of just five games.
Kudla now meets 'almost' Brit Slovenian Aljaz Bedene in the final round of qualifying, with Bedene coming through his second round match with Martin Alund without getting into too much trouble looking like the better player throughout the match and never looked like he was going to let his lead slip. This would be Bedene's second Wimbledon appearance if he wins after losing to Leonardo Mayer in the first round last year when he was much higher ranked.
It would be Kudla's second appearance also as he qualified last year, going one step further than Bedene reaching the second round defeating fellow qualifier James Duckworth in the first round before losing to Ivan Dodig in the second round.
It was a mixed bag for younger players today with Yasutaka Uchiyama and Filip Krajinovic both falling to much more experienced opponents in Ryan Harrison and Jan Hernych whilst Aussie duo Luke Saville and Alex Bolt were impressive in despatching Rhyne Williams and Agustin Velotti to reach the final round. It would be a maiden pro tour appearance for both of the youngsters at Wimbledon if they were to win on Thursday. Fellow Aussies Samuel Groth and James Duckworth also made it to the final round of qualifying today beating Jonathan Eysseric and Farrukh Dustov in their second round matches.
Saville has had a taster of the green grass of SW19 before having won the 2011 boys singles title at the venue and also reaching the final of the same event in 2012 before losing to winner Filip Peliwo of Canada.
It will be a challenge for both players though especially over five sets with Saville facing Yann Marti of Switzerland and Bolt taking on Konstantin Kravchuk of Russia with both looking for their first appearance at Wimbledon. Saville has upset the odds this week already though having knocked out number one seed Thomaz Bellucci in the first round so he has shown he definitely has the skills to reach the main draw.
Bolt hasn't played a player that has a penchant for grass as of yet and this won't change in his final round encounter, with Kravchuk preferring hard and carpet courts winning his one Challenger tour title on carpet in Russia back in 2009.
In what looked to be the match to look out for today, Rafael Nadal conqueror Steve Darcis took on Daniel Brands in the late afternoon. It was a fairly close match for the first two sets with the players sharing the spoils winning a set each 6-4. In the third set, Darcis just fell apart losing the set 6-2 in the end. Perhaps the physicality of player someone like Daniel Brands took it's toll on Darcis, having only just returned to tour from an eleven month shoulder injury after beating Nadal last year in the first round.
This is a good result for Brands bouncing back from mononucleosis earlier on in the year. The debilitating illness has claimed the careers of Mario Ancic and most likely Robin Soderling, so it's great to see Brands back playing well after poor results late last year possibly due to the illness. Looking to reach his third Wimbledon after getting to the fourth round back in 2010 and reaching the second round last year before losing to Tomas Berdych. He faces Ryan Harrison on Thursday and in the best of five sets you would think that the big serving German would have too much for the young American.
The pick of the rest of the seeded winners on Day 2 include Ricardas Berankis, Gilles Muller, Malek Jaziri, Tim Smyczek, Alex Kuznetsov, Rajeev Ram, Frank Dancevic and Tatsuma Ito.
It all changes on Thursday with final qualifying round matches bringing a new challenge with players having to win three sets to qualify. Wimbledon is the only grand slam to implement this rule into the final qualifying round. It will give the players the potential to play a five set match before the first round proper but it could also be the downfall for some.
The men get a day off tomorrow due to the second round of the women's qualifying getting under-way. Who will take those coveted qualifying places? Who will fall at the last hurdle with the longer format hindering them? Who will reach the grass of the All England Club on Monday?
Stay tuned to VAVEL Tennis this grass court season to find out! We will be providing extensive coverage from Wimbledon over the following weeks, as well as tournaments all over the world. We are the place to be for all the biggest tennis news this Summer.