Easy winner Wednesday of the Russian Alexander Shevchenko, (97th in the world) in three sets (6-3, 6-3, 6-2), the French number one, Adrian Mannarino (35th), qualified for the second round of the tournament of Wimbledon where he will meet another Russian, but 3rd in the world, Daniil Medvedev.
With his slender style, Mannarino has always had the upper hand over an opponent who has never found the solution. In the second set, with the Frenchman leading 6-3, 5-0, Shevchenko lined up three games in a row. But Mannarino easily won his next service game to pocket the second set and put himself in an ideal situation. At 2-2 in the last set, he accelerated again to take the opposing serve twice and finish in 1h31, without drawing on his reserves.
In the next round, the challenge will be on a whole different scale, even if Medvedev, his future opponent, is not a particularly good player on the grass. In four appearances at Wimbledon, the Russian has never done better than a round of 16 (in 2021). In 2018, Mannarino knocked him out in the third round in five sets, 6-3 in the final set. In six previous confrontations, the Frenchman has beaten Medvedev four times.
And the performance of the Russian in his first round match, against Briton Arthur Féry, 391st in the world, is not likely to fully reassure him. In the end, Medvedev qualified but he had to work against an opponent who was playing for the first time in the main draw of a big tournament 7-5, 6-4, 6-3.
