Quentin Halys, 79th in the world, swallowed Australian Aleksandar Vukic (87th) 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 in 1:29 on Thursday at Wimbledon and thus qualified for the first time in his career for the third round of a Grand Slam tournament.
The 26-year-old Frenchman will have a lot to do to go even further, since his next opponent will be the formidable Italian Jannik Sinner (8th in the world), quarter-finalist last year.
This second round match completed in an hour and a half but in the relative anonymity of court 16, contrasts with the first round, won over two days because of the rain against Daniel Evans but closed Tuesday evening in the fervor of the mythical Center Court.
In the first set against Vukic, the Frenchman quickly made the break to lead 2-1 and confirmed 3-1. He then hit the double break to pocket the first set on the Australian’s serve.
The second was only a formality, Halys lining up five games from 1-1.
The third was tighter, Vukic keeping his face-off until leading 4-3.
But the French then lined up three games to win.
Another surface, but the same punishment: a few weeks after being beaten in the first round on the clay courts of Roland-Garros, Arthur Fils, 61st in the world) again suffered the law of Alejandro Davidovich (34th) on the grass of Wimbledon Thursday, in a very late game of the first round.
The Spaniard won 7-6 (7/3), 6-1, 6-2 in 1h46 and will face the Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp (44th) or the Chinese Zhizhen Zhang (52nd) in the second round.
In the first set, Son, who received an invitation to participate in his first Wimbledon (he had played his first Roland-Garros in May) held off Davidovich.
It was the Frenchman who made the first break to lead 3-1, but Davidovich immediately picked up.
The two men then held their faceoff until the tie break where the Spaniard took over.
The result was one-sided in his favor.
At Roland-Garros, Fils lost in four sets (6-1, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3).
