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Wimbledon housemates Sam Groth and James Duckworth have set up a high-stakes all-Australian second-round showdown after scoring breakthrough victories at the All England Club.
Groth nailed 16 aces to upset American 31st seed Jack Sock 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-3 for his maiden main-draw Wimbledon win after Duckworth reached round two for the first time with a fighting 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 3-6 3-6 7-6 victory over Tunisian Malek Jaziri.
The pair will stoush on Thursday, with the reward a big one – almost certainly a centre-court duel with second-seeded seven-times champion Roger Federer.
“Trying not to think too far ahead but it would be an unbelievable experience of playing Roger Federer, hopefully on centre court,” Groth said.
“It would be nice.”
Much nicer than Groth suspects things will be around the digs he and Duckworth – who also both coached by Ben Mathias – share at nearby Wimbledon village.
“It’s interesting. It could be a bit tense in the house the next couple of days,” Groth said.
“We travel together, we practise together and we’re good mates so in one way it’s great there’ll be an Aussie in third round.
“But I’ve got to try and treat it – not like it’s a friend (I’m playing) – but like it’s another match and a match I feel like I can win.”
After qualifying last year, Groth and Duckworth both gained direct entry in 2015 after making significant rankings strides over the past 12 months.
Duckworth’s success on Tuesday also buried some grand slam demons after the 22-year-old suffered a gut-wrenching first-round loss from two sets up against Italian Andrea Arnabo.
Duckworth squandered a match point in that defeat and dubbed it the worst experience he’d endured on a tennis court.
His good mate Lleyton Hewitt was on hand as he overcame the disappointment of dropping the third and fourth sets against the higher-ranked Jaziri to give himself an opportunity to live out a lifelong dream against Federer.
Casey Dellacqua and Ajla Tomljanovic also advanced on day two of the championships to give Australia nine players in the second round.
Dellacqua sealed an impressive 6-2 6-2 win over two-time women’s quarter-finalist Tamira Paszek to book a date with Ukrainian 17th seed Elina Svitolina, while Tomljanovic upset Czech Klara Koukalova 6-3 6-4.
Tomljanovic next plays Polish 13th seed Agnieszka Radwanska.
But Jarmila Gajdosova is out of the tournament after going down 7-5 6-4 to Germany’s former finalist and 18th seed Sabine Lisicki.
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