Mark Ceban insists he will not get carried away after stunning the fifth seed in the boys’ singles at Wimbledon.
The British wildcard, 15, toppled highly-rated Romanian Luca Preda with a fluent 7-6 (2) 6-4 victory on Court 5.
Ceban’s match was suspended when he was a set up on Sunday evening and despite having to wait until the following morning, the south-east London star got efficiently back to work to keep his SW19 dream alive.
The teenage talent will face Korean Hoyoung Roh in the next round but says he’s keeping his feet firmly on the ground despite grabbing such an eye-catching result against a player three his senior on debut.
“I feel quite relieved – especially because we stopped yesterday when I was a set up, I wanted to get the next set done,” he said.
“I slept pretty well to be fair – I went on court today and wanted to commit to my shots, stay aggressive, play it point by point and it went pretty well.
“I always believed I could win – I wanted to see how it would go and it worked out well.
“I’m just going to take it one match at a time – I’ve not checked who I’m playing yet but I’ll see.”
Ceban juggles his burgeoning tennis career with studying at Wilson’s Grammar School and secured a spot in in the boys’ draw as a wildcard.
And he took to the big stage like a duck to water, winning the opening set with a confident tie-break triumph.
With the Sunday night light fading, Ceban and Preda, 18, were forced off and made to resume their tussle on Court 5 the next morning.
But Ceban carried on where he left off to clinch the second set in 33 minutes and advance to round two.
Ceban, who now joins fellow British boys Luke Hooper and Charlie Swaine in the next round, enjoyed the benefits of home support and added: “My friends came to watch the match – that helped me and boosted me on a bit.
“I usually train in the evenings after school – they’re really supportive of me so that helps quite a lot.
“Three of them came today and it helped me relax a bit – because there are people there watching.”
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