After the first day of play at the Wimbledon tournament, Kazakhstan lost two of its representatives in the singles draw. Following Yulia Putintseva's defeat, Alexander Shevchenko lost to Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, ranked fourth in the world, 3:6, 1:6, 4:6. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
The draw could have been kinder to Shevchenko, who is ranked 99th. Hopes that the Kazakhstani would overcome the strong Canadian, seeded third, were tied to Shevchenko's success in March. Then, in the second round of the Miami Open, he defeated another top tennis player, world No. 9 Ben Shelton of the USA, 6:7 (3:7), 7:6 (7:3), 6:3.
However, he could not repeat the feat. No antidote was found against the Canadian's powerful serve. In the first two sets, Alexander lost his serve twice each, while failing to earn a single break point.
In the third set, the Kazakhstani managed to stabilize his serve, but his return game remained unchanged. After reaching 4:4, Shevchenko allowed his opponent to break in the ninth game. Auger-Aliassime then served out the match. 6:3, 6:1, 6:4 in 1 hour 34 minutes. 15:2 in aces, 89:64 in total points won.
Tomorrow at Wimbledon 2026, Elena Rybakina and Alexander Bublik will begin their campaigns.
The Wimbledon Championships 2026 are taking place in London from June 29 to July 12. It is the third Grand Slam tournament of the season and the only one on grass.
The prize fund is £64.2 million (up 20% from last year). Champions and finalists in singles will receive £3.6 million and £1.8 million, respectively.
The main draw of Wimbledon, like the other three majors, includes 128 players in singles, 64 doubles pairs, and 32 mixed doubles pairs.
The reigning Wimbledon champions are Italy's Jannik Sinner and Poland's Iga Swiatek.