Top seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski began their quest for a first major crown Friday at Wimbledon.

The Dutch-British duo defeated Daniel Altmaier and Aslan Karatsev 6-3, 7-5 in the first round after winning 34 of 40 first-serve points. Koolhof and Skupski, who won their first title of the season last month at the ATP 250 event in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, will next clash against Australian Open champions Rinky Hijikata and Jason Kubler, who ousted Marco Cecchinato and Thiago Monteiro 6-2, 6-2 in the opening round.

Also in first-round action, fourth seeds Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski cruised past Mackenzie McDonald and Ben Shelton 6-3, 6-4. Seventh seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer survived Marc-Andrea Huesler and Brandon Nakashima 6-4, 7-6(7).

Dutchmen Tallon Griekspoor and Bart Stevens upset third seeds and last year’s semi-finalists Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4.

Stefanos Tsitsipas and Petros Tsitsipas were locked in a battle against Luca Van Assche and Arthur Fils at 7-6(3), 4-6 when play was suspended due to darkness.

In mixed doubles, Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter moved past John Peers and Storm Hunter 6-2, 6-4 after fending off the two break points they faced.

When you watch Alexander Bublik play, you will be entertained.

The 26-year-old pulls opponents around with his court craft, combining deft drop shots with effortless power to light up the Tour. For Bublik, the ability to make people smile is why he plays the game.

“I want to be seen as a good man who has respect for the game, for the fans and for the entertainment, because that is what sport is all about,” Bublik told ATPTour.com.

The Kazakhstani’s all-court game saw him capture his second tour-level title in Halle last week. This week, he is putting on a show at Wimbledon, where he next plays Andrey Rublev in the fourth round.

Bublik’s fun personality has been on display since he made his debut in 2016, but what is he like off court?

“I am laid back and honest. I enjoy playing table tennis. I enjoy walking around and discovering things,” Bublik said as he cracked a smile. “I love nature. Back home we have a lot of forests and parks and castles. I grew up discovering all of this. I went and discovered dungeons when I was younger because we had them all open. Where I live now is all nature with a lot of history.”

Holding a key interest in a variety of subjects, Bublik enjoys spending his downtime investigating and learning.

The 26-year-old revealed he has held a love for history from a young age. In recent years, this has grown further, with Bublik grasping the travel opportunities the Tour gives him to further enhance his knowledge.

“You must know history to know about the future because history repeats itself all over again,” Bublik said when discussing the subject. “Reading is important for your own education. When I was in Paris I went to the Louvre and looked at some sculptures from Ancient Greece, which I found very interesting.

“Then I started reading about that period and it was interesting. If you gain information little by little, by the age of 40 you can have a conversation about a range of topics. I think it is very important to be able to talk about different topics with different people.”

With London home to a wide variety of world-leading museums, the opportunities for Bublik to explore are huge. However, for him, there is something else that catches his eye in the UK capital and it is not strawberries and cream that are served up at The All England Lawn Tennis Club.

“I like the aesthetics of a good car in front of a building,” said Bublik, who clinched his second tour-level title in Halle last monht. “Especially in London. It is the different culture and architecture of buildings in London I like and I think fancy cars in front of them look good.”

When Bublik takes to court against Rublev, his focus will be back on the job at hand. By reaching the fourth round, he has recorded his best run at a Slam.

If he can go one step further and secure his spot in the quarter-finals for the first time, a celebration may be in order when he returns home to Monte-Carlo before heading out to the United States for the hard-court swing.

Sixth-seeded Dane Holger Rune rallied from a break of serve down in the first and third sets to secure a gritty 6-3, 7-6(3), 6-4 win over Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena to charge into the Wimbledon third round Friday.

Rune dictated play in the match with 45 winners (double that of his opponent) and 47 unforced errors and steadily improved on serve after winning just three of 12 second-serve points in the opening set.

“It wasn’t easy today; he made it very difficult,” said Rune, who won 33 of 48 net approaches. “He’s the type of player who doesn’t give you anything for free. So I had to finish the points myself and try to play good. He makes a lot balls. I managed to raise my level close to the end and I got unbelievable support from the crowd.”

The 2022 Rolex Paris Masters champion will next meet Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who defeated Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. The 31st seed Davidovich Fokina won his lone Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting against Rune earlier this year at the Mutua Madrid Open.

The 20-year-old Rune, who saved eight of 11 break points against him, has not dropped a set in advancing to the Wimbledon third round for the first time. In the opening round he defeated British wild card George Loffhagen 7-6(4), 6-3, 6-2.

Rune’s deepest runs at the majors have come at Roland Garros, where he has reached the quarter-finals the past two years. During this grass season he reached the semi-finals at Queen’s (l. to De Minaur). Rune is at a career-high No. 6 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, with a chance to break into the Top 5 for the first time with a deep run at The All England Club.

In third-round action, Italian Jannik Sinner rallied to beat Quentin Halys 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4. After dropping the opening set, the eighth seed lost just three points behind his first serve for the remainder of the match. A quarter-finalist at Wimbledon last year, Sinner won 62 per cent of points behind his second serve, compared to the Frenchman’s 46 per cent.

The 21-year-old Sinner awaits the winner of Daniel Elahi Galan and Mikael Ymer.

Sinner has defeated Juan Manuel Cerundolo, Diego Schwartzman, and Halys to reach the fourth round of a major for the second time this season (Australian Open). 

In 2022, the seven-time tour-level titlist Sinner led Novak Djokovic two-sets-to-love in the Wimbledon quarter-finals before the Serbian mounted a comeback to win in five sets. Djokovic went on to capture his seventh Wimbledon title.

Jannik Sinner advances to the Wimbledon fourth round.” />
^{Jannik Sinner advances to the Wimbledon fourth round. Credit: Michael Regan/Getty Images}

The tennis world is remembering Barry Phillips-Moore, former player, coach and the earliest adopter of the infamous ‘spaghetti-string’ racquet, which imparted extreme spin and was ultimately banned from the sport. Phillips-Moore passed away in Adelaide on 29 June, aged 85.

A two-time semi-finalist at the Australian Championships, Phillips-Moore grew up alongside Rod Laver, but broke the mould of the typical grass-loving Australian serve/volleyers, preferring to battle from the baseline, especially on clay. He won the Auckland title in 1968.

After his playing career, Phillips-Moore coached Paul McNamee, Peter McNamara, Harold Solomon and Eddie Dibbs before turning his attention to leading a group of young talent that fell outside traditional development pathways on European adventures with the help of a trusty minivan.

One of his most famous prodigies was fellow Australian and Adelaide native Mark Woodforde, who went on to claim four singles titles and 67 doubles titles, including 12 majors.

After finishing high school, Woodforde joined up to eight other players (mostly Australians) on marathon nine-month tours of Europe. The players crammed into a minivan and shared driving responsibilities while Barry and his beloved wife Anne (who passed away in 2021) followed in their own car.

At the time, Phillips-Moore was adamant that the Europeans tours were a better option than the U.S. collegiate system. At the end of the tour the players would park the car in a hotel parking lot or the like and pick it up several months later during the next season.

“I never would have had a career had I not crossed paths with Barry Phillips-Moore,” Woodforde told ATPTour.com at Wimbledon this week. “He was my coach from the first year that I travelled overseas when I had the aspiration to be a professional tennis player.

“My dad laid the groundwork, but Barry gave me that belief that I could become a tennis player. And I never would have moved to that racquet, that special string (which was approved by authorities) if it weren’t for Barry.”

Mark Woodforde, Richard Fricker, Mike Derer (sitting), Marty Richards and Gavin Pfitzner with Barry Phillips-Moore at a reunion at the Edinburgh Hotel in Adelaide.” />
Barry’s Boys: Former travelling companions Mark Woodforde, Richard Fricker, Mike Derer (sitting), Marty Richards and Gavin Pfitzner with Barry Phillips-Moore at a reunion at the Edinburgh Hotel in Adelaide. Photo courtesy Mark Woodforde.

“Barry Phillips-Moore was a professor,” said esteemed tennis journalist Richard Evans, the author of more than 20 books, including the outstanding ‘The History of Tennis’.

“Apart from bringing up lots of juniors, he was always fiddling around with racquets and stringing. He created a tighter way of stringing racquets so there was less space between the strings. He was just a real tennis guru and, as Mark Woodforde said, without Barry he would never have made it.”

Phillips-Moore had a sports store in Adelaide and in later years would also sell tennis products – racquets, strings, clothing – out of the boot of his car during the European tours with his young players. Former World No. 71 Australian Carl Limberger was among Phillips-Moore’s protégées.

“I remember going into Barry’s family store in Adelaide when I was knee high to a grasshopper and looking up at all this stuff Barry had imported from Europe,” Woodforde said. “It was like being at the circus.

“When I grew up and I decided I wanted to try to become a tennis player, dad reached out to Barry. Barry and Anne came around to the house and said ‘If you want him to have a crack, we can take him away’.

“He had a relaxed approach and said it was okay to fail because I would learn from the mistakes. I had been used to having someone yelling at me and I was afraid to make mistakes. When I started working with Barry it was almost like tasting forbidden fruit.”

Fans quickly noticed new tennis power couple Paula Badosa and Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Wimbledon mixed doubles draw when it was released, but they are not the only tennis couple in the field.

Partners Katie Boulter of Great Britain and Alex de Minaur of Australia are also playing mixed doubles together for the first time.

“I’ve been bugging her for a while to play. We said we would give it a go at least one time. It’s going to be exciting,” De Minaur said after his first-round singles win Thursday. “It’s going to be fun. I’m going to enjoy it. I’ve been prepping playing a lot of doubles this grass-court season for this mixed. She hasn’t on the other hand. She might be a little bit rusty, but I’m sure it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Boulter, who is into the third round in singles, is thrilled to be giving it a go with De Minaur.

“I think it’s something we’ve both wanted to do for quite some time. I think we’re both going to really enjoy it and cherish it. It’s not often that you get to have that experience together, especially at Wimbledon,” Boulter said. “We’re going to go out there and have a swing. We’ve got nothing to lose, so I’m looking forward to it.”

The Briton, who will hope the home crowd helps push her and De Minaur through, believes it’s going to be “an experience” competing alongside her boyfriend.

“It’s going to test our relationship. I don’t doubt that for a minute,” Boulter said. “No, it’s a totally different vibe going on the court with him. I think we bring the best out of each other, in terms of tennis, on and off the court. I think we’re going to have a couple smiles on our faces, enjoying ourselves. Yeah, he’s obviously got a lot more experience than me in doubles, and I’ll be looking to draw off him.”

De Minaur refused to name himself captain of their on-court partnership, though. According to the Australian, they have not yet discussed who will play on which side of the court.

“We have not even gotten to that phase,” De Minaur said. “But I would probably recommend her to take the forehand and I might stick to the backhand side. But hey, we never know, we might just switch it up after a set if it’s not going too well.”

Most of all, they look forward to having fun on the court. Boulter and De Minaur will play Australians John Peers and Storm Hunter in the first round.

“I always say this: I play my best tennis when I’m relaxed. I’m enjoying myself. I try really hard to keep reminding myself of that. It really does bring the best out of me,” Boulter said. “I think having him with me will keep me very calm and hopefully we can play some really good doubles.”