Basilashvili Stuns Number 15 Seed Lopez to Reach 3rd Round on Wimbledon Debut

Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili is enjoying a quite sensational debut at Wimbledon as he emerged victorious from a five-set thriller against Spain's Feliciano Lopez (7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4) yesterday at the All England Club.

The Georgian, whose only previous appearance at a grandslam tournament was at this year's French Open where he lost in the first round, now faces another Spaniard - Roberto Bautista Agut - in the third round on Saturday.

Ranked 147th in the world, Basilashvili is now likely to break into the world's top 100 on the strength of his results so far, having defeated Argentina's Facundo Bagnis (ranked 90th) and now Lopez (ranked 16th).

If Basilashvili secures another upset by overcoming Bautista Agut (ranked 22nd), he is likely to face the seven-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer in the fourth round.

He becomes only the fourth Georgian man to reach the last 32 at Wimbledon, and the first since Irakli Labadze in 2006.

Labadze's run to the fourth round that year, where he lost to Rafael Nadal, was the furthest a Georgian man had gone at Wimbledon for 30 years.

Prior to that, Teimuraz Kakulia reached the third round in 1976 while the most successful male Georgian tennis player Alex Metreveli famously reached the Wimbledon final in 1973 where he lost to Czechoslovakia's Jan Kodes.

Alastair Watt