David Goffin played his second match of the tournament and lost to Mpetshi Perricard who is having a very impressive tournament. Fourth seed Arthur Fils was able to beat 20-year-old Mark Lajal in two sets in a thrilling match. Furthermore, Alexander Bublik made the Center Court rumble in his match against Frenchman Grégoire Barrère.
David Goffin played his second-round match of the tournament, clashing against qualifier Mpetshi Perricard. The Frenchman is already playing his third match of this tournament and is on an impressive run. He started extremely strong with three clean serve games in a row and some punishing forehands. Goffin did not underperform and had an answer at hand. He took it to a tiebreak where he still came up short. In set two, the number 226 played the set of his life without constraint. He broke Goffin’s serve and served out the match with a score of 7-5: 6-3.
The third match on the Centre Court was played by Arthur Fils. The 2004-born Frenchman took on the one-year older Mark Lajal. In set one, neither could go through their opponent’s serve. Fils made fewer errors in the tiebreak, was more accurate at the right moments and won the first set. Copy paste in set two. Both men refused to concede their serve and it came to a tiebreak. Lajal fought for all he was worth but again could not bring out his best tennis at the critical moments. Fils won by a score of 7-6 and 7-6.
Swiss Dominic Stricker played against Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp. It was a bit of a struggle for van de Zandschulp in set one. Some unnecessary errors and some clever balls from Stricker in the tiebreak, put the Dutchman on pursuit. Van de Zandschulp fought back with all his might and had an early break in set two. Stricker had no answer, set two on van de Zandschulp’s name. In set three, there seemed to be no stopping van de Zandschulp. He once again went through Stricker’s serve and did not back down in the match. Van de Zandschulp will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in his next round.
Alexander Bublik, series number three of the tournament, played the last match of the tournament against Frenchman Grégoire Barrère. Bublik did not appear to have too much trouble with his opponent and won easily in two sets: 4-6 and 2-6.
