In a relatively weak section of the draw and coming off a recent grass-court title at Queen’s Club, expectations could not be higher for Tommy Paul at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships.
As such, a second-round exit at the hands of a qualifier ranked No. 147 would have been a borderline disaster.
Paul came close to enduring such a fate, but he ended up battling to a gritty 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 win over Otto Virtanen on Wednesday evening. The world No. 13 fought off two break points at 2-3 in the fifth set, after which a break to love at 4-4 proved to be the difference in a three-hour and 19-minute thriller.
“That was an unbelievable match,” Paul assured. “I had to dig deep and fight hard.”
The American’s success was one of a eight five-set matches that concluded around the grounds of the All-England Club on Wednesday–six delayed first-rounders and two in the second round. Other five-set victors were Tomas Machac, Miomir Kecmanovic Roman Safiullin, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Arthur Rinderknech, Emil Ruusuvuori, and Lucas Pouille.
Three results were especially improbable. Ruusuvuori saved a pair of match points from 6-4 behind in the fourth-set tiebreaker on his way to a 7-6(6), 4-6, 5-7, 7-6(6), 6-3 victory over Mackenzie McDonald. Kokkinakis fought off a whopping four match points in the third set against Felix Auger-Aliassime on Tuesday, eventually prevailing 4-6, 5-7, 7-6(9), 6-4, 6-4 on Wednesday afternoon. But the most shocking comeback of all belonged to Machac, who found himself trailing David Goffin 5-0 in the fifth set–all but out of the tournament. Somehow, the Czech recovered for a hard to believe 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-6(10-5) victory.
“It was a really tough match today,” Machac reflected. “I’m grateful that I can manage to win this match in the fifth, especially when I was losing 0-5. This match will forever stay in mind.
“I was still trying to play my game and I was believing that at least I could break him once, and let’s see what was going to happen after,” the Czech explained. “I had the chances to break him for the second time in a row and I took the chance and completely turned the match to my side.”
As for Paul, he will run into a daunting grass-courter in Alexander Bublik during third-round action, but they are in an otherwise favorable section of the bracket in which Casper Ruud was the eighth seed. Ruud fell to Fabio Fognini on Wednesday, so the Paul-Bublik winner will face either Fognini or Roberto Bautista Agut.
That means Paul continues to be the favorite for a place in the quarters alongside Carlos Alcaraz, who advanced past Aleksandar Vukic 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-2.
