Denis Kudla was one of four Americans to qualify for Wimbledon on Wednesday
On the heels of qualifying for the French Open this month and reaching the quarterfinals of the Aegon Championships last week, Denis Kudla earned a spot in the Wimbledon main draw by defeating Ruben Bemelmans (6-4, 6-4, 6-3) yesterday in a qualifying match.
Kudla was one of four Americans to clinch a Wimbledon berth by way of qualifying. Alex Kuznetsov, Wayne Odesnik and Bobby Reynolds sealed their spot on the bracket on Wednesday.
“I think we push each other a lot,” said Kudla of the charging American peleton. “Like in Roland Garros, it’s the first time three Americans qualified since 1982, I read, and here I think we’re all really close, we all really push each other. One guy is getting Top 100, the next guy wants to do it, the next guy wants to do it. So we got like six seven guys who are going to make a huge push this year.”
This will be Kudla’s inaugural appearance at Wimbledon. He is primed to win his first Grand Slam main draw match as the grass court surface suits his flat strokes approach.
“I hit the ball pretty flat, so this court helps me more,” he said. “I can stay low, and I feel like I hit a pretty clean ball, so as long as I stay focused and the timing’s there. I mean, this surface really helps everybody if you hit the ball flat. But the timing’s got to be there, that’s huge.”
The main draw will be released by The All England Club this Friday, June 21. The top five seeds have already been announced and they follow the order of the ATP rankings. The top seed will be Novak Djokovic followed by Andy Murray, Roger Federer, David Ferrer and Rafael Nadal.
