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Wide-eyed Anton Matusevich set his sights on plenty more returns to SW19 after savouring the Wimbledon experience on his men’s doubles bow.
Matusevich is currently studying an Economics and Statistics degree at University College London, but still benefits from the LTA’s NTC Access programme, providing cost-free access to courts, coaching, sparring, physical trainers, and the LTA’s tournament bonus scheme.
The Sevenoaks player and partner Luke Johnson flew into a 5-2 lead against Alex de Minaur and Matt Reid but the Australian pair fought back to take the first set in a tie-break before winning the second 6-2.
The 20-year-old had come within a whisker of making the cut in the men’s singles, losing a deciding set in a thriller against Bernabé Zapata Miralles in the final qualifying round, and relished his first taste of the main draw at the home of tennis.
“It was awesome,” he said. “I was playing well coming into it and today was the best I’ve ever served in a doubles game.
“In the first set, we didn’t do a lot wrong. At 5-2, they just came out with four very good returns straight to the feet.
“They raised their level after that but overall, I really enjoyed it and we’re in a good place.
“Wimbledon is the best tournament out there and it’s the one people want to win the most.
“It was nice to have a bit of a crowd in, it made you want to go for your shots and have fun.”
Men’s doubles matches in the first two rounds of this year’s Championship have been cut from best-of-five to best-of-three due to the poor weather earlier this week, making the first set even more pivotal.
Matusevich felt a second-round berth could have been at the mercy of the British pair had they closed out the opener but has learned plenty from taking on two players ranked in the world’s top 100.
“If we get that first set, we have a very good sniff,” he said.
“Over five sets, they might have warmed up later and come out on top but if we’d got that first one, we’d have been looking pretty decent in the second. But it is what it is.
“They’re more experienced - Matt Reid is a bit of a doubles specialist and de Minaur is very good. He kept his forehand returns really low and placed them really well, which was kind of horrible to get back.”
Johnson was making his second Wimbledon appearance having also fallen at the first hurdle alongside Evan Hoyt in 2019 and admitted the better pair won.
“When we got sniffs in games, they came up with some really good stuff,” said the world no.428.
“It’s always nice to test your level against guys like that who are ranked higher.
“It gives us confidence we can push through and get our levels up to where these guys are.
“The more we play against these guys, the more we get used to certain things and hopefully we can reach these sorts of levels more often.”
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