Wimbledon qualifiers: 6 Azzurri enter the second round

Wimbledon qualifiers: 6 Azzurri enter the second round

The first day of Wimbledon main draw qualifiers yielded a tally of 6 wins and 10 losses for Italian tennis players.

Matteo Arnaldi, Luca Nardi, Giulio Zeppieri, Mattia Bellucci, Matteo Gigante and Federico Gaio all hit the second round. Two-set victories for Zeppieri, Bellucci and Gigante, who beat France’s Cazaux (7-6 6-4), Russia’s Gakhov (6-3 6-4) and Britain’s Wendelken (6-3 7-6), respectively. They had to resort to the third set, however, Arnaldi, who won against China’s Shang (3-6 7-6 7-5), Nardi, executioner of Slovak Kovalik (6-2 4-6 6-4), and Gaio, who defeated Britain’s Cox (2-6 7-6 7-5).

Among the losers some regrets for Franco Agamenone, Luciano Darderi and Alessandro Giannessi, all three of whom surrendered only in the third set. Rather sharp defeats instead for Andrea Pellegrino, Francesco Passaro, Raul Brancaccio, Riccardo Bonadio, Francesco Maestrelli, Andrea Vavassori and Flavio Cobolli.