Francisco Comesaña extends his fairy tale at Wimbledon | ATP Tour

Wimbledon

Comesaña writes another page of his fairy tale

The Argentine is already in the third round in his first Grand Slam

July 04, 2024

“I don’t know what to say right now.” Francisco Comesaña was left speechless just a few days ago in front of the All England Club crowd when he beat No. 6 seed Andrey Rublev in his first main draw match at a Grand Slam at Wimbledon. But his love affair with the British grass is not over yet.

The Argentine advanced to the third round of the grass-court Grand Slam on Thursday after defeating Australian Adam Walton 7-5, 1-6, 6-7(12), 6-1, 7-6(10-8) in four hours and eight minutes.

“It’s the tournament of my dreams, I didn’t want to settle for beating Rublev and today I went for more and I’m very happy to be in the third round,” said the Argentine to ESPN after the match. “The idea was to enjoy the nerves and to win in the tie-break match makes me very proud, because it was also difficult with the wind at times of tension.”

At 23, she had never had the chance to play in the main draw of a tournament of this level. Her previous experiences at the US Open 2022 and 2023, as well as at the Australian Open last January, always ended in the qualifying round. But in London, her luck has changed, on the surface on which she had played the least in her career.

Comesaña and Walton, who had also made his Grand Slam debut with a first-round win (d. Federico Coria), were faced with a unique opportunity. The Argentine, ranked No. 122 in the PIF ATP Rankings, and the Australian, ranked No. 101 in the world, knew they had a unique chance to write a new golden chapter in their nascent Grand Slam careers.

The respect between the two was evident from the first set, where both held their serves in the first eleven games. Until 6-5, the Argentine took advantage of his aggressiveness on return to go 15/40 and end up signing the first break of the match.

The Australian did not pay for the hard setback, because he immediately responded with an early break in the second set (0-2), in addition to linking four more consecutive games to close 1-6.

But if there was a delicate moment it was in the third set, where the alternatives followed one after another. Although Comesaña had three set points, the Australian needed a total of nine to end up deciding a competitive tie-break by 12-14. Walton was only one set away from the third round.

The Argentine did not back down and followed the same recipe as his opponent a little earlier. He responded to a hammer blow with six games won out of seven possible to make it to the fifth set, which would decide the name of the winner. Comesaña increased the number of direct serves to 19, to raise his total number of winning shots to 68.

In the third game of the final set, he found his fourth break of the match (4/11 in total). He led 4-2 before Walton pulled away to reach the final tie-break, which Comesaña eventually won, setting off for the third round, where he will face Lorenzo Musetti, who beat his compatriot Luciano Darderi 6-4, 4-6, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 in three hours and 47 minutes.

Comesaña is the only Argentine representative in the third round of Wimbledon, after Tomás Martín Etcheverry was unable to accompany him on Thursday. The No. 30 seed said goodbye to Alexei Popyrin, who managed to come back 3-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in three hours and 58 minutes.

The Australian will be Novak Djokovic’s rival.

Did you know…?

Francisco Comesaña is the first Argentine to win more than one match in his debut at Wimbledon since David Nalbandian in 2002, who reached the final.