Saville in Wimbledon qualifying upset

Australian Luke Saville has made a brilliant start to Wimbledon qualifying, beating top seed Thomaz Bellucci, as four Australians won first-round matches.

Luke Saville.

Australian Luke Saville has made a brilliant start to Wimbledon qualifying. (AAP)

Former top-ranked junior Luke Saville has produced one of the biggest wins of his career by ousting top seed Thomaz Bellucci in Wimbledon qualifying.

Saville was one of four Australians progressing to the second round in qualifying for next week's grass court grand slam began at Roehampton on Monday.

Sam Groth, James Duckworth and Alex Bolt joined Saville in moving a step closer to a place in the Wimbledon men's draw.

Saville, 20, defied his ranking of 233 to down Brazilian world No.100 Bellucci 6-4 6-7 (7-4) 6-1.

The former junior Wimbledon and Australian Open champion will next face American Rhyne Williams in his quest for a second grand slam start.

Big-serving Groth defeated Brit Edward Corrie 6-3 7-6 (7-2), while Duckworth beat Argentine Juan Ignacio Londero 7-6 (11-9) 6-2.

Bolt ousted Slovakian 17th seed Norbert Gombos 7-5 6-4.

All are bidding to join Lleyton Hewitt, Marinko Matosevic, Matt Ebden, Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios in the main draw from Monday.

John-Patrick Smith, Ben Mitchell and Matt Reid were all first-round causalities.

Women's qualifying begins on Tuesday with Ashleigh Barty, Anastasia Rodionova and Olivia Rogowska attempting to join Samantha Stosur, Casey Dellacqua and Jarmila Gajdosova in the main draw.


Share

2 min read

Published

Updated


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world