Vít Kopřiva (27) surprisingly passed the three-round Wimbledon qualification grid. The currently 123rd player in the world defeated the favored two-time semi-finalist Richard Gasquet (38) 3:6, 6:3, 6:2 and 6:4 and will play the main event at Grand Slam events for the second time in his career. There will be three Czechs in the main draw of the most famous tennis tournament, a certain Tomáš Macháč (23) and Jakub Menšík (18) have a direct start.
A total of eight Czech representatives competed in the qualification for this year’s Wimbledon, and Kopřiva was definitely not expected to advance to the main competition. Before the trip to London, he played only three career matches on grass with a negative balance of 1:2.
In Roehampton, where the Wimbledon qualification is traditionally held, he defeated Henri Squire and Hugo Dellien in three sets and sensationally defeated the clearly favored two-time semi-finalist and experienced veteran Gasquet in the final. Kopřiva did not get a single break point in the opening set, but in the rest of the match he made a total of 13 and converted five opportunities. He faced only four threats himself and turned away half of them.
Kopřiva qualified for the Grand Slams for the 11th time in his career and succeeded only for the second time. He only played the main competition of the big four companies at this year’s Australian Open, where he was close to the scalp of Sebastian Korda in the first round.
The main competition will be drawn on Friday and starts on Monday. It will feature 11 Czech tennis players. Among the men, in addition to Kopřiva, Tomáš Macháč and Jakub Menšík, and last year’s champion Markéta Vondroušová, Karolína Muchová, Barbora Krejčíková, Linda Nosková, Kateřina Siniaková, Marie Bouzková, Karolína Plíšková and Brenda Fruhvirtová will perform in the women’s tournament.
Wimbledon men’s qualifying results
