ATP grass court season, week three: A trio of Brits qualify for Wimbledon, new names on the trophy at Eastbourne and Mallorca

For the four nations which host a grand slam event – the UK, the USA, France and Australia – handing wild cards to promising home players can pay dividends if some of those players advance into the main draw.

Indeed, qualifying draws can sometimes showcase the talent of a future star to full effect. 

At other times, a local player’s overwhelming desire to compete in a tournament comfortably outweighs their actual ability.

This year at Wimbledon, three British competitors successfully qualified for the ongoing men's singles event.

Here, Sports News Blitz writer and tennis fan AJ Becker takes a closer look at their journeys, as the highlight of the grass court calendar gets underway.

Basing bosses it

With a ranking of #331 and his prior grass court experience confined to a pair of ITF events in 2022, it would be fair to say that the odds were stacked against Max Basing.

Nonetheless, the 23-year-old from Surrey put in one of the most impressive debut qualifying performances in recent memory to make a first foray into tour-level action at SW19, with all the youthful ebullience of a 15-year-old Oxbridge prodigy.

Despite losing all three of his qualifying matches in the Challenger grass season, Basing managed to see off opponents Francesco Maestrelli of Italy, Tom Gentzsch from Germany and Switzerland’s Remy Bertola – the latter from two sets to one down, as the final round of Wimbledon qualifying assumes a best-of-five-sets format.

Tarvet does it again

The Stanford University student will be joined in the main draw by someone not unacquainted with the art of blazing such a trail. 

Twelve months ago, tennis fans may recall a virtually unknown Brit by the name of Oliver Tarvet – then placed at #719 – bulldozing his way past a trio of much higher-ranked opponents to qualify, then pulling off a further victory in round one and even getting nine games on the board against defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in round two.

This time, Tarvet again exuded a comfortable air of control in his three qualifying matches – sweeping past Australia’s Alex Bolt, the Canadian Alexis Galarneau (as he did last year) and Stefanos Sakellaridis of Greece without a set being dropped.

Now at #349 in the rankings despite having not played this year until June, this should mark the point where Tarvet starts being taken more seriously and becomes ingrained in wider tennis consciousness.

Harris at home on grass

The seasoned, battle-hardened Billy Harris completed the home hat-trick by attaining his first successful grand slam qualification, after 10 failed attempts.

The 31-year-old has previously participated at SW19 as a wild card and direct entrant; his grass pedigree is undeniable, having reached all three of his tour-level quarter-finals on the surface.

Stefano Napolitano of Italy, the Hungarian Zsombor Piros and China’s Zhou Yi were his defeated opponents – an achievement that should keep Harris firmly stationed inside the Top 200, rather than sending him back out into the deep space of the Challenger sphere.

1999 all over again

Three qualifiers from a home field of 13 may not strike you as a high success rate; it is in fact the first time this century that the number of Brits qualifying for the men's singles has even been in the plural, with ten now the post-2000 sum total.

Back in 1999, Danny Sapsford, Arvind Parmar and Jamie Delgado were the tierce of home qualifiers – ending a nine-year drought on that score.

That all three went on to win their first-round clash that year perhaps gives an indication of (successful) history repeating itself in more ways than one.

MORE FROM AJ BECKER: ATP grass court season, week two: Underdog victory for Francisco Cerundolo at Queen’s; Frances Tiafoe triumphs at Halle

Disappointment for Searle and others

However, this qualifying series will have been a chastening disappointment for erstwhile Wimbledon boys’ champion Henry Searle, especially considering his recent success in Dublin.

The likes of Mark Ceban and Oliver Bonding are still novices at this level and would not have been expected to progress far, whilst players such as Paul Jubb and Jay Clarke have long failed to reach their potential.

Evans’ last stand

It is also a crushing disappointment that Dan Evans’ south-west London swansong will take place in the doubles only.

Traversing the qualifying draw was always going to be tricky for someone who had only six matches under his belt all year; so it proved, as Australian Tristan Schoolkate took the Midlander out in stage two.

Whenever he has struck the right balance between his tennis ability and the enormity of his personality, Evans has achieved a great deal – a peak ranking of #21, two tour titles, a pair of Masters semi-finals, runs to the last 16 of both hard court slams, a role in Britain’s Davis Cup triumph.

Like him or not, there is an inner grittiness and a self-revelation about his character that is instantly appealing to his many fans.

Whilst no stranger to a career misstep or an excess of hedonism – with one such detour down Reckless Street in 2017 almost costing him his entire career – Evans’ tennis CV eclipses that of almost all his compatriots in the post-Henman era; surely one last wild card on the Wimbledon grass was merited?

Brits shine at Eastbourne

Evans may not find his heir apparent among the younger generation of Brits in character terms, though the runs of Jan Choinski (quarters) and Toby Samuel (semis) at last week’s Eastbourne tournament provides further evidence of the strength in depth the country now possesses.

The Sussex event also bore witness to Jack Draper’s return; the former world #4 has been drowning in inaction for much of the past 10 months, and with the showpiece of the British tennis season imminent, his semi-final placing has generated some much-needed momentum.

Draper is also now benefitting from the wisdom of two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray; one always felt that Murray’s biggest asset, his reading of the game, would be best used in a coaching context.

Bergs and Fokina take titles

Belgian Zizou Bergs, 27, celebrated his maiden tour-level trophy at the south coast event, whilst Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina – born in the same week as Bergs – fittingly achieved the same feat on his home grass in Mallorca.

Fokina experienced a fruitful but ultimately frustrating 2025 in which four finals were lost – squandering championship points in two – and this therefore will have felt especially satisfying for the former Wimbledon junior champion.

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