Adam Walton has landed his first top-60 win over Miomir Kecmanovic within the opening spherical of the ATP 250 occasion to set a Roland Garros rematch.
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One in all 10 Aussie males within the high 100 – the equal most of any nation alongside the US and France – Walton discovered the camaraderie reassuring, particularly at Wimbledon earlier this month the place he received his first match at a serious towards Federico Coria earlier than he narrowly succumbed to Francisco Comesana within the subsequent spherical.
“Normally, once we go to tournaments earlier than the occasion, greater than doubtless you’ll practise with the opposite Australians, and we are able to go to dinner and stuff like that collectively,” he stated forward of his Wimbledon debut.
“I simply really feel like that kind of assist in that regard. And everybody’s, you understand, we’re taking part in playing cards at lunch or doing issues like that, simply mingling round one another and simply the discuss once you’re speaking to one another, and I feel everybody’s in good spirits and bringing everybody up.”
Whereas the grass-court season landed him a primary ATP predominant draw win in Mallorca and maiden Grand Slam predominant draw win, competing Stateside had lengthy reaped rewards for the 25-year-old.
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Earlier than turning professional in 2022, Walton scored greater than 200 college-level match wins in singles and doubles in his 5 years at Knoxville, whereas he and fellow Aussie Pat Harper received the NCAA doubles nationwide championship.
“I wasn’t even positive if I’d play professional tennis after faculty,” Walton informed Australian Tennis Journal. “I actually wasn’t positive till my final yr in faculty, once I had my greatest outcomes and completed the collegiate system ranked No.2 behind Ben Shelton (the highest seed in Atlanta).
“My coach there stated I ought to at the least give it a crack and I had some fairly first rate success straight off the bat, in order that type of helped me to decide to taking part in professional.”
Now a winner of eight singles and 4 doubles ATP Challenger and ITF titles, Walton nonetheless trains in Knoxville when not on tour or again house and already as much as a career-best world No.88 within the reside rankings, extra competitors Stateside beckons with a US Open predominant draw simply across the nook.
First, he has a shot at revenge towards Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, his Roland Garros conqueror from this yr, with a maiden ATP quarterfinal on the road in Atlanta.
Fellow Aussie Vukic was not so lucky in his first spherical after he retired injured towards Bellucci because the Italian led 1-6 6-4 3-1.
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