Roman Safiullin is writing his own chapter at the 2026 Wimbledon Championships. On 1 July, the Russian qualifier defeated Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp in a gruelling five-setter, 6-0, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6, to reach the third round of the world's most prestigious grass-court tournament for the second time in his career. The decisive fifth set had to be settled by a tiebreak — a scenario in which Safiullin is currently displaying remarkable nerves of steel.
Dominance, collapse, resilience — a match of shifting momentum
The pattern will have been familiar to anyone who had followed Safiullin's displays during the opening week. The first set was his, comfortably and without resistance: 6-0, a statement that visibly disrupted van de Zandschulp's rhythm. The Dutchman steadied himself in the second set, however, found his serve and took it back 6-4. That ebb and flow of dominance and setbacks ran like a thread through the entire match — Safiullin took the third set 6-3, van de Zandschulp responded with 6-3 in the fourth. The fifth set had to provide the answer.
Once again, it was the tiebreak that settled who progressed. Safiullin kept his composure and won it convincingly, 10-5. The statistics underline just how evenly contested the match was: van de Zandschulp struck 12 aces and 48 winners, yet also committed 50 unforced errors — compared to just 30 from Safiullin. The return games tally also favoured the Russian: he won 26 percent of return games to his opponent's 17, while his first-serve percentage stood at 63 percent.
A qualifier with an extraordinary grass-court story
What makes Safiullin's performance even more remarkable is the physical context in which it was delivered. He had already fought through three qualifying matches before spending the best part of four hours on court against 12th seed Andrey Rublev in the first round — a drama he ultimately resolved in a fifth-set tiebreak. Van de Zandschulp, by contrast, came into this match with just a single first-round match in his legs — a clear physical advantage that the Dutchman ultimately could not turn to his benefit.
The third round at Wimbledon is no uncharted territory for Safiullin. In 2023, on his main-draw debut, he reached the quarterfinal — becoming only the twelfth player in the Open Era to achieve that feat on his first appearance at the Championships. He was eventually stopped by Jannik Sinner. That affinity for Wimbledon's grass is once again on display, even after having to take the long road through qualifying.
Next challenge: Joao Fonseca
The third round brings a considerably sterner test in the form of 24th seed Joao Fonseca. Safiullin will need time to recover — his body has already been put through an extraordinary amount in the space of this week alone. Whether another big performance is within him remains to be seen. His displays at Wimbledon 2026 so far, however, suggest that writing off this qualifier would be a mistake.
