Wimbledon 2018: Yuki Bhambri stumbles on All England Club main draw debut, but gains vital big-match experience

The good news was that Yuki Bhambri was playing his third straight Grand Slam main draw match of the year. The bad news was he lost his third successive main draw match. Ranked 85 in the world, the Indian had as good a chance as any against Italian qualifier Thomas Fabbiano. But after racing through the first set, the wheels came off Bhambri’s challenge and he eventually went down 6-2, 3-6, 3-6, 2-6 in two hours and 38 minutes in the first round at Wimbledon on Monday. [caption id=“attachment_4653941” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Yuki Bhambri returns the ball to Thomas Fabbiano during his first round match at Wimbledon. AP [/caption] Having won the 2009 Australian Open boys’ title, Bhambri was pipped for a bright future. The Indian has the building blocks and the mental toughness for the men’s tour but his body had let him down time and again. Even though he turned professional in 2008, he has had only three full seasons on tour and not enough mileage or experience on the big stage. Wimbledon 2018 was only his fifth main draw appearance, and it is evident that the Indian, 25 years of age, is still on a rough learning curve. For most tennis players it’s a staircase, rather than an elevator, to success. Though Bhambri, ranked 48 places above the Italian, had a numerical advantage on paper going into the match, Fabbiano had a better head-to-head record. They had met thrice on tour before this, with the Italian winning all three, including a 7-6, 6-0 win on grass at the Nottingham Challenger in 2017. Bhambri was yet again close to being bageled, when he was 0-5 down in the fourth set, but a desperate, last ditch effort from the Indian saw him get on board. The Italian had also taken a longer, tough path to the grasscourt Major: he won three rounds of qualifiers in Roehampton to earn a place in the main draw. Bhambri, whose previous Wimbledon appearances included first-round qualifying losses in 2015 and 2012, meanwhile, was making his main draw debut. The Indian had a decent run in the tune-up events, making the quarter-final of the Surbiton Challenger and qualifying for the ATP 500 event at Queen’s Club in London. Bhambri had beaten World No 69 Taylor Fritz en route, but failed to complete his first round match against Milos Raonic. Trailing 1-6, 1-3 he retired with a knee injury. Bhambri had spent the week prior to Wimbledon nursing the injury and “strengthening and stretching” to give himself a fighting chance at the Big W. Once on the big stage, Bhambri showed no early nerves. The Indian was quick to take the attack to Fabbiano, breaking him in the third and seventh game to take a 5-2 lead. All the work he has put into his net game seemed to come together, as Bhambri won 11 of 11 points at the net. He won the opening set 6-2 in 26 minutes. It was his first, and eventually the only, in his five attempts at Majors. As their history suggests, the match-up against Fabbiano does not favour the Indian. The 29-year-old from Italy stays steady on the baseline, moving his opponent around the court and forcing them into errors. After the initial surge, the Indian found out he couldn’t quite go toe-to-toe against Fabbiano. The Italian was hitting deeper to reduce Bhambri’s chances of dashing to the net and cutting the points short. In the second set, Bhambri clawed back from 1-4 to 3-4, but couldn’t quite level things up. Fabbiano got an early break in the third set as well, to go up 2-1. It was a lot closer than the score line suggested, with the Indian pushing Fabbiano on almost all of the service games, and also had two break opportunities, but just could not get the break. It looked like the Indian had given in by the time the fourth set arrived. Though he saved two match points on his serve at 0-5 down and went on to win the next two games, it was too little too late for the Indian. The 11 double faults (five in the third) dented his chances, but what eventually hurt him was that he was only able to convert five of the 13 break opportunities. Fabbiano was a shade better at eight break points converted of 18. On a positive note, though he doesn’t quite have the mastery of former Indian players, the Delhi lad showed a deft touch, winning 40 points at the net. Bhambri’s Wimbledon debut may not have gone to plan, but it has been a season of progress for the 25-year-old. Having set the tone in Melbourne, where he won three rounds of qualifying to win his place at the Australian Open, Bhambri has gone from strength to strength. He also made the cut through qualifiers at Indian Wells and Miami Masters. At Indian Wells event, he recorded his biggest win when he defeated World No 12 Lucas Pouille in straight sets. In Miami, he beat World No 75 Mirza Basic in the first round to cross swords with top-ranked American (11) Jack Sock in the second. After an abdominal injury kept him out of India’s Davis Cup clash against China, Bhambri returned to claim the biggest title of his career. He claimed the $150,000 ATP Challenger event in Taiwan to reach a career-high ranking of 83. That mark assured him a place at the French Open. At Wimbledon, for the second Slam in a row that Bhambri made the main draw purely on merit. In a conference call ahead of Wimbledon, John McEnroe had said, “I just started seeing him, seeing his name. He’s a guy that’s proven he belongs on the men’s tour.” More importantly, the Indian has remained free of any major injuries, which dictated his career earlier, for the last two seasons. He has worked on sharpening his ground strokes and is a more assured, aggressive, well-rounded player now. Bhambri, though, might rue losing to Fabbiano and missing out on a chance to go up against Stan Wawrinka in the second round. The Swiss, who has been struggling for form since coming back from a knee surgery, won the battle of one-handed backhands against sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov 1-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5), 6-4.