Roberto Bautista, a semi-finalist in 2019, had a completely different start than that year this time at Wimbledon. The Castellón had to work hard to achieve victory against the always competitive, leathery and physical John Millman, whom he beat 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 and 7-6 (4) at 3:03. Two years ago he beat German Gojowczyk in three sets and 90 minutes. Bautista, who now sees his quadrant clearer due to the surprising elimination of Stefanos TsitsipasThey will be seen in the second round with the Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic (21 years and 49th in the world), who could with the Argentine Bagnis.
Roberto could not use his serve to defeat Millman, so he had to refine a lot in other aspects, like the game on the net, where he was excellent (20/24) and, luckily for him, he resolved the match in the tiebreaker of the fourth quarter, when his left thigh bothered him the most, a problem for which he was treated when the tie-break was even (3-3).
“The game has been demanding and I had a slip in which I hurt myself. I had moved well until then,” explained Bautista about those discomforts. “I’m happy with how I managed the match, although I was nervous. Luckily I was able to solve in the tie-break of the fourth set.” The Spaniard did not want to value the elimination of Tsitsipas, because he still sees the quarterfinals very far: “It is a very long tournament, two weeks, I have to recover well, enjoy the victory and prepare for the next round, which will surely be difficult.” There he will meet Kecmanovic, whom he sees as “a complicated opponent, who has a very good backhand, plays well” and respects him “quite a lot”. “At the US Open we played a game that was very tough,” he recalled.
Results and men’s box calendar.