Roman Safiullin became the first man to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals on event debut since 2014 on Sunday when the World No. 92 moved past Denis Shapovalov at the All England Club.
Safiullin prevailed 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 against the 26th-seeded Canadian on No. 2 Court to reach the last eight of a major for the first time. The 25-year-old broke Shapovalov’s serve five times across the final three sets to wrap a two-hour, 11-minute triumph and advance to face Jannik Sinner or Daniel Elahi Galan.
Quarter-finals bound 🔒
Roman Safiullin defeats Denis Shapovalov 3-6 6-3 6-1 6-3 to secure his place in the next round 👊@Wimbledon | #Wimbledon
— ATP Tour (@atptour) July 9, 2023
Although Shapovalov began to struggle physically as the match wore on, Safiullin maintained a high level throughout. He struck 33 winners to his opponent’s 30 en route to the biggest triumph of his career.
“It’s my first time in the main draw and the first time [past the second round] in a Grand Slam, and to reach the quarter-final is amazing,” Safiullin said in his on-court interview. “I’m not really [believing] it now, but I’m super happy that I could pass Denis and hopefully he can recover soon.”
Before Safiullin, the most recent player to reach the SW19 quarter-finals at the first attempt was Nick Kyrgios, who famously defeated then-World No. 1 Rafael Nadal in the fourth round in 2014. Safiullin may not be the only player to manage the feat this year: his fellow main-draw debutant Christopher Eubanks takes on Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round on Monday.
Safiullin is up 49 spots from the start of the tournament to No. 43 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings as a result of his exploits at SW19, where he is just the 12th man in the Open Era to reach the quarter-finals on event debut. As well as 2022 finalist Kyrgios, that list also includes former Wimbledon champions and ATP greats Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe.
“That’s definitely something special,” Safiullin said when asked about how it felt to join such prestigious company. “I didn’t know that those guys were also [on that list]. I will do my best in the quarter-final to go as far as I can here.”