The ‘Magical’ Munar signs the big blow and Badosa says goodbye after a great fight

The Spanish tennis player Jaume Munar showed his best side this Tuesday to advance to the second round of Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam of the season, in a day with an uneven flavor for the national representation and also marked by the elimination of Paula Badosa, while the nationalized Oksana Selekhmeteva does advance to the second round and Pablo Llamas Ruiz goes home.

Munar broke the big news of the day by beating the Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo with authority 6-1, 6-4 and 6-3 in 1 hour and 46 minutes and meeting in the second round with the British Jacob Fearnley, who came back against Alex Michelsen. The Spaniard, number 44 in the world, also ended a streak of four consecutive defeats and opened his seventh participation at Wimbledon with a bang.

The Spaniard found an especially aggressive version for grass and built the victory from the serve and the rest. He finished with 12 aces, won 94% of first serve points and converted five of his twelve break options, in addition to dominating the total points (95-64).

The first set was a declaration of intent. Munar broke very soon, accelerated the rest again and completely overwhelmed an uncomfortable Cerúndolo from the bottom and far from the level that had led him to lift the recent Queen’s title. The Spaniard barely allowed any rhythm and closed the set forcefully. In the second, the Argentine tried to hold on more from the serve, but Munar once again imposed patience and precision to open the gap. Already in the third he managed the advantage with serenity and ended up closing one of his most solid matches on grass.

The other Spanish presence in the men’s draw ended with defeat. Pablo Llamas Ruiz lost to the American Zachary Svajda 6-1, 6-2 and 6-4 in 1 hour and 35 minutes. The Spaniard suffered a lot with the second serve, he failed to convert any breaking balls and was penalized by the high number of errors against an opponent who was much more incisive from the exchange and clearly superior in decisive moments.

In the women’s team, Paula Badosa was left without a prize despite competing for more than two hours and losing to the American Emma Navarro 6-4, 3-6 and 7-5 in one of the most even matches of the day.

The Catalan started better and found a reward in the first set thanks to brave management of the long games. He saved delicate moments on serve, found an important break in the final stretch and ended up closing a very hard-fought round after wasting several previous opportunities.

However, Navarro raised the level in the second set and managed to balance the match from the rest. Badosa maintained offensive production – he ended up with even more winners than his rival (38 to 30) – and hit ten aces, but he also lived with seven double faults and less efficiency with the first serve. The outcome came in a very close third set where both shared the dominance of points and the American ended up imposing one more point of consistency to close the match by only two points difference (106-104).

The Spanish-nationalized Russian Oksana Selekhmeteva also advanced, making her debut with authority by beating the Austrian Sinja Kraus 6-1 and 7-5 in 1 hour and 35 minutes. He resolved the first set with enormous superiority, dominating from the exchange and especially punishing his rival’s second serve. The second set did require more work, with Kraus raising the level and staying close on the scoreboard, but Selekhmeteva knew how to prevent the match from getting longer, sustained her decisive turns and closed the pass.