A British player ranked No. 331 will get to play at Wimbledon, even though they lost in the qualifying rounds.
A British tennis player ranked 331st in the ATP rankings has earned a spot in Wimbledon’s main draw—even though he lost a match during qualifying.
Max Basing, 23, came back from being down two sets to one against Switzerland’s Remy Bertola to win 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 on Thursday afternoon.
This will be Max’s first time playing at Wimbledon after winning one of the 16 qualifier spots in the main draw.
Born in Surrey, Max hadn’t played since March when he retired from an ITF tournament in China. He made his return in an ATP Challenger event in Birmingham at the start of June.
He’s also making his Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon, which makes his qualifying story even more special. He beat the 10th seed Francesco Maestrelli in the first round and then easily won against Germany’s Tom Gentzsch in round two.
That led him to the final qualifying round against Bertola, who had been in an ATP Challenger final earlier this year.
Interestingly, Max lost in the semi-finals of the LTA’s pre-qualifying event last week, putting his spot in the qualifying draw at risk. He hoped for a wildcard to play qualifying—and once he got it, he made every match count.
After beating Bertola, Max said, “It’s been crazy, to say the least. I started in pre-qualifying last week at Southlands in Wimbledon and lost in the semis. I feel really lucky and grateful to have this chance. This week has been amazing—it’s honestly the best week of my life. Every day has gone my way. I’m super happy and proud of myself and everyone who supports me.”
He joked about his unusual path, saying, “Not many people can say they’ve lost before the main tournament starts and still made it this far. So that’s probably a first. I just feel lucky to be here.”
Max is one of three British men to get through qualifying, along with Billy Harris and Oliver Tarvet.
On the women’s side, no British players qualified directly, but they could still get into Wimbledon’s main draw thanks to the lucky loser system.
There will also be strong British representation at Wimbledon through wildcards. Six British women—including French Open finalist Maja Chwalinska and the legendary Serena Williams—got wildcards, joining Emma Raducanu, Katie Boulter, and Francesca Jones, who are already in the draw.
For the men, Cameron Norrie, Jack Draper, and Jan Choinski will be joined by six British wildcards. The other wildcard spots go to Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov and three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka.