Danish tennis player August Holmgren is one step closer to a new adventure at Wimbledon. In last year's tournament, he sensationally reached the third round of the main draw after going through the qualifiers, and on Monday, he began the 2026 edition by getting through the first round of the qualifiers.
Holmgren, who is No. 141 in the world rankings, beat No. 210, Liam Broady, 7-6, 4-6, 7-5 after overcoming several problems along the way.
The serve was a huge weapon for Holmgren in last year's Wimbledon, but on Monday, the serve did not work well from the start. In the first two games alone, the Dane made six double faults, but despite three break points against him, he held serve to make it 2-2.
He finished the match with 16 aces and 18 double faults. Holmgren had a break point at 3-3 and a chance against him at 5-6, but the first set was decided in a tiebreak.
The Dane's backhand began to settle from the first point and gave Homgren a 3-0 lead. Broady fought back to 5-5, but Holmgren closed the set winning 8-6 in the tiebreak.
In the second set, Broady took the lead when he broke to lead 3-2, and from there he safely secured the set 6-4. Holmgren flirted several times with a break against him in the third set, but each time he rode his way out of the storm.
He was in big trouble at 4-4, when the 28-year-old Dane fell behind 0-40 on his own serve. An exit seemed close, but Holmgren came up with several big serves and got out of trouble again.
After only carving out a single break point in the entire match, Holmgren suddenly found himself 40-0 up on the Briton's serve at 6-5 in the deciding set.
Holmgren subsequently hammered a backhand down the line to breathe a sigh of relief to continue dreaming of another fantastic Wimbledon result.
In the second round of the qualifying tournament, Swiss player Jerome Kym, who is No. 197 in the world rankings, awaits.
