10 hours ago
World 550 Stewart two matches away from Wimbledon
Scotland's Hamish Stewart has navigated three of five rounds in the world 550's first attempt to qualify for the Wimbledon men's singles at 25-year-old from Strathblane defeated former Davis Cup player Liam Broady 4-6 6-4 7-5 to become one of four British players granted wild cards into Wimbledon on Monday he saved a match point before progressing against Valentin Vacherot of Monaco when his opponent was forced to retire after slipping on the was trailing 6-4 6-5 at the time to the 26-year-old who is currently ranked 267 in the world.
The Scot, who played Junior Wimbledon in his teens, next faces French 21-year-old Luca Van Assche, who has a career high of 63 but is currently 186, defeated Juan Manuel Cerundolo, the world number 107 who was seeded three for the qualifying tournament, 7-6 beating 31-year-old Broady, who has slipped to 632 in the rankings, Stewart had defeated another Englishman, Ben Jones, ranked 620, 6-4 mainly on the third-tier ITF Futures circuit, Stewart warmed up for Wimbledon qualifying with a 7-6 6-2 defeat by United States' world 191 Murphy Cassone in an attempt to qualify for the second-tier Challenger event in Ilkley. Should Stewart defy his ranking and oust Van Assche, he will need to then overcome either Swiss world 374 Leandro Riedi or Argentine 24th seed Federico Agustin Gomez, currently 134, to claim one of the 16 qualifying places for the main begins on 30 June, with Scotland's Jacob Fearnley and Cameron Norrie already in the main draw.
