Popyrin cashes in at Wimbledon qualifiers

Australia’s newest top 100 inductee Alexei Popyrin has made a promising return to Wimbledon with the help of Pat Cash.

Alex Popyrin, left, with his grasscourt coach Pat Cash, right

Australia’s newest top 100 inductee Alexei Popyrin has made a promising return to Wimbledon with the help of Pat Cash on a stellar opening day of qualifying for local hopes.

The 19-year-old was among the eight Australian men who made a clean sweep of their opening round Wimbledon qualifying matches.

The talented right-hander, who was the last local man remaining in the Australian Open in January, only narrowly missed the main draw entry for Wimbledon.

The fourth seed in qualifying, Popyrin was too strong for Federico Coria in a 6-2 7-5 win as he seeks to make his senior debut at the All England Club.

As revealed by The Australian earlier this month, the Sydneysider is receiving tutelage through the grass court season from 1987 Wimbledon champion Cash.

In an interview after the French Open, where he reached the second round, Popyrin said he entered the grass-court season with no expectations given his lack of experience on the surface.

Before an ATP tournament in Stuttgart three weeks ago, he had not set foot on the surface since an unsuccessful junior Wimbledon campaign in 2016.

But Popyrin, who has a quality serve and is clearly capable at the net, is clearly listening to the Davis Cup legend.

He qualified for the event in Germany and pushed former Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic to a third-set tie-breaker in the opening round.

Popyrin, who trains at the Nice-based academy of Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou, was beaten in qualifying for the Queen’s Club Championships but has benefited from being based in London during the past fortnight.

Jason Kubler, whose career continues to be hindered by injury and is trying to qualify for the second year in succession at Wimbledon, has started well. He reeled off the last 12 points of the match to defeat the 2nd seeded Henri Laaksonen 6-2 5-7 7-5.

South Australian Álex Bolt was also forced to the brink against the highly talented Italian teenager Jannick Sinner when victorious 2-6 7-5 12-10.

“I would say (the feeling was) relief, really. I got (a get) out of jail free card there. I really don’t know how I won that,” Bolt told the Tennis Australia website.

“He played some quality tennis and I somehow just weathered the storm. He’s ridiculous. For a set and a half he completely outplayed me and I couldn’t have a play on the ball, he was by far the better player on court. If he can just keep that level for longer periods of time he’s going to be a very good player.”

John-Patrick Smith also delivered a 6-3 6-4 upset against the in-form French veteran Nicolas Mahut, who featured in the longest match ever played against John Isner at Wimbledon in 2010.

“When I saw the draw I thought, ‘If I serve well, I can beat anyone’,” he said.