Early Wimbledon woe for Bastl

A disappointed George Bastl is out of the Wimbledon tournament Keystone Archive

Swiss number four, George Bastl, has failed to make it past the first qualifying round for next week's Wimbledon tennis tournament.

Bastl (ATP 118) crashed out of the qualifying tournament in Roehampton after suffering a straight sets defeat to Russia’s Denis Golavanov, a player 99 positions below him in the sport’s world rankings.

Switzerland’s Ivo Heuberger (ATP 136) and Lorenzo Manta (ATP 228) are still in the running for the prestigious English tournament, though, after they both managed to win their opening encounters.

Heuberger dispatched Argentina’s Martin Rodriguez (ATP 216) in straight sets (6-1, 6-4), while Manta enjoyed an even more convincing win against Austria’s Zbynek Mlynarik (ATP 221), with Manta going through to the second qualifying round 6-1, 6-2.

Michel Kratochvil, who has qualified automatically for Wimbledon, finally got his grass court preparations on track with an impressive straight sets win in Nottingham over sixth seed Alberto Martin.

The Bernese player won his first ten games against the Spaniard, before finally facing some resistance – not enough though to stop Kratochvil securing a 6-0, 6-4 victory. The win was Kratochvil’s first ever on grass and came at a welcome moment after two successive first round defeats.

There was no such joy for Patty Schnyder, though. Wrapping up a busy day for the country’s tennis players, the Swiss women’s number two lost her first round match at Rosmalen, suffering a three sets defeat (1.6, 6-2, 1-6) at the hands of Russia’s Elena Bovina.

swissinfo with agencies