Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Julian Reister racked up convincing wins in difficult conditions on the first day of Wimbledon qualifying at Roehampton National Tennis Centre.
Frenchman Roger-Vasselin, the world number 185 who has been as high as number 35, is looking to re-enter tennis singles’ elite having won the French Open doubles in 2014, and he started well with a solid 6-4 6-3 victory over Colombia’s world number 161 Eduardo Struvay.
Reister – down at 459 in the world – made quick work of his opening match, defeating 18th seed Thiago Monteiro 6-0 6-4.
“It’s never easy on grass,” said Roger-Vasselin who made the doubles semi-finals at the Aegon Championships at Queens Club last week.
“You have to be focused on every game, every point is important so I tried to stay focused because I had many opportunities, many times I was 30-0 on his serve but he kept serving well.
“I’ve been playing a week already on the beautiful court at Queens so I felt very good on the grass. It definitely it helped me a lot.
“It was tough because of the wind, when its windy on the grass you don’t have many shots because of the serve so it’s tough to get the rhythm.
“Anyway a win is a win so I’m glad to get through this one.”
He goes forward to play Reister in the second round of qualifying, who admitted conditions were a problem with several rain delays and severe wind during games.
“It was very difficult because I was waiting the whole day because of the rain and I couldn’t practice, it was my first match on grass so it was kind of difficult but I managed,” said Reister, who had a strong contingent of German fans in London to witness his convincing victory.
“It was a little bit tricky because of the wind but actually I felt pretty good on the court and I’m very happy to be through to the second round, it’s a fantastic atmosphere, its lovely.”
Elsewhere, British wildcard Daniel Cox claimed a shock win by beating number 16 seed Thiemo De Bakker 6-1 6-2.
World number 554 Cox but overcame a 427-ranking deficit against De Bakker and plays Dennis Novak in the second round.
The only other Brit in action, Lloyd Glasspool, lost 6-2 7-5 to 28th seed Dennis Novikov.
