Stanford grad Bradley Klahn beat Japan’s Yuichi Sugita, 2-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2, 6-2, in the first round of the Wimbledon Championships on Tuesday.
Klahn, slowed by back problems for several years, won his first Grand Slam singles match since reaching the second round of the US Open in 2013. He’ll meet England’s Kyle Edmond in the second round.
Ranked 168th in the world, the left-hander outlasted Sugita, ranked 69th, in a marathon second set. Klahn won the tie-breaker, 8-6, and then settled in and won the final two sets in relative ease. The match lasted just over two hours.
Klahn, a former NCAA singles champion, made his second appearance at Wimbledon and his first since 2014.
Klahn needed to win three matches during qualifying just to make it into the main draw. He needed just under an hour in ach of his first two matches to advance and then went 2:27 to beat the 32-year-old Italian Simone Bolelli, who was trying to qualify for his ninth Wimbledon.
Bolelli has appeared in 32 total Grand Slam events, including 12 straight appearances at Roland Garros.
Klahn is playing his 16th tournament of the year. He reached the finals at Newport Beach Challenger, losing to American Taylor Fritz, 3-6, 7-5, 6-0, He also reached the quarterfinals of three other Challenger events: Kunal Patel San Francisco Open, Open Region Guadeloupe and the BNP Paribas Primrose.
Until Tuesday, Klahn had not won a main draw singles event on the ATP World Tour since beating Noah Rubin in Aug. of 2014 at Winston-Salem. Klahn was forced to sit out 21 months between Feb. 2015 and Nov. 2016 with back issues.
His last tournament win was at the Challenger Traralgon in Australia in Nov. of 2014. He beat Kyle Edmond in the first round of the tournament, 7-6 (3), 6-1. Klahn has won five Challenger titles.
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports