ATP Tour

Jodar sees 'green for go' on grass in Wimbledon R1, Safiullin saves 2 MPs to upset Rublev

A relative lack of grass-court experience did little to stop Rafael Jodar settling in quickly to his 2026 Wimbledon campaign.

The #NextGenATP Spaniard raced past home wild card Felix Gill 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 on Monday lunchtime to make a winning start to his pro career at the All England Club. Jodar reached the Wimbledon boys’ singles quarter-finals in 2024, but his outing against British wild card Gill on No. 3 Court was his first tour-level match on grass.

"I think this surface is a bit different from the other two," Jodar said in his post-match press conference. "You have to pay more attention to every detail, because everything goes very fast, and if you don't serve very well one game, then getting that break back is difficult.

"But I think I handled very well the situations in the match today, so I'm happy about that."

Jodar converted five of 11 break points to move 1-0 ahead in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with the World No. 220 Gill, while the Spaniard also won 84 per cent (36/43) of points behind his first serve. With his one-hour, 56-minute triumph, the 19-year-old became the sixth Spanish teenager to win a men’s singles main-draw match at Wimbledon in the Open Era, after Jose Moreno-Tallada, Sergi Bruguera, Tommy Robredo, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz.

Jodar is competing as the 23rd seed at Wimbledon after making a stunning start to his first full season on the ATP Tour. The 2025 Next Gen ATP Finals competitor won his first tour-level title in Marrakech in April and reached back-to-back ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finals appearances in Madrid and Rome. Earlier this month, the Spaniard reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final at Roland Garros.

A familiar face from that Roland Garros run awaits Jodar in the second round at Wimbledon. The teenager will take on his fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta, whom he defeated from two sets down in the fourth round in Paris. A former No. 10 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, Carreno Busta led Denis Shapovalov 6-3, 7-6(7) on Monday before the Canadian retired from the pair’s first-round clash.

Roman Safiullin notched an opening-day upset to book his spot in the second round at SW19. The 2023 Wimbledon quarter-finalist saved two match points to sink 12th seed Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-7(6), 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(12) after three hours and 58 minutes on Court 16. Safiullin saved the match points at 8/9 and 10/11 in a marathon deciding-set tie-break before setting a second-round meeting with Botic van de Zandschulp, who defeated Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-0.

There were no such problems for 24th seed Joao Fonseca, who eased past Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6(4), 6-4, 6-3. The 19-year-old Brazilian, who defeated Novak Djokovic en route to his first major quarter-final earlier this month at Roland Garros, will play Jesper de Jong or Rinky Hijikata next. Monday’s encounter marked the final appearance at Wimbledon for 2019 semi-finalist Bautista Agut: The former World No. 9 will retire at the end of the 2026 season.

Another former semi-finalist at the All England Club, Hubert Hurkacz, gave an early reminder of how dangerous he can be on grass with a 6-4, 6-2, 7-6(7) triumph against Casper Ruud. Hurkacz needed two hours and two minutes to see off 11th seed Ruud and book a second-round clash with Sebastian Ofner, a 1-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 winner against Hamad Medjedovic.

American seeds Learner Tien and Tommy Paul also began their Wimbledon title bids in impressive fashion on the London grass. The 16th-seeded Tien held off Dalibor Svrcina 6-1, 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3 and will next play Marton Fucsovics. Meanwhile the 21st seed Paul eased past Alexandre Muller 6-1, 6-2, 6-1. The Queen’s Club finalist Paul will next take on Martin Landaluce or qualifier Soonwoo Kwon.