Kristian, Kevin or Karl... Those were the names a trio of elderly locals sitting on fold-up chairs lining Court 14 had narrowed it down to when trying to decipher the first name of the top seed poised to tumble out in the first round of Men’s Singles Qualifying on Monday.
They settled on Karl as it sounded the most Belgian. It was actually Kimmer Coppejans, and the first name mattered little as the world No.97 fell to Frenchman Vincent Millot 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 in blustery conditions at Roehampton.
The left-handed Millot had fallen to the 2012 Junior French Open champion at Roland Garros only last month in qualifying, but backed his chance on a surface better suited to his attacking style of play.
"I knew that it’s going to be easier for me here because my game is more aggressive here than on clay. His preference is on the clay," Millot said. "I knew if I was aggressive all the match I’d have a very good chance to win."
Serving for the opening set, the world No.213 hit a tentative smash, which Coppejans easily made his way to, passing down the line.
There was no such hesitation from the Frenchman in the following points, bringing up set point with a flat backhand winner down the line before finding luck with a backhand slice dropping over for 6-3.
Coppejans handled the blowy winds better in the second set finding the form which took him through three rounds of qualifying to a grand slam main draw debut at Roland Garros last month, to break for 4-2.
With Challenger titles this year already in Guangzhou, China, on hard courts and at Mersin, Turkey, on clay, Coppejans’ greater recent success looked as though it would carry him, after free-swinging his way through a 6-2 second set.
"Yeah he was playing very good and no mistakes," Millot said of the second set, fearing the match was slipping away.
“He had a break point at the start of the third set though and then it turned. I started to return more and more aggressive and made him hit more and more balls.”
Millot would break for 3-2, going on to bring up match point with an off-forehand winner at 5-3.
Coppejans sealed his fate with a sliced backhand catching the tape, sending the Frenchman through to a second round meeting with Romania's Marius Copil, a 6-3, 7-6 winner over Jason Jung of Chinese Taipei.
Earlier Russian No.2 seed Andrey Kuznetsov had an easier than anticipated passage through to the second round when his opponent, British wild card Richard Gabb, retired while trailing 6-2, 3-0.
World No.98 Kuznetsov’s countryman Evgeny Donskoy also progressed with a 7-6, 6-2 win over American Jarmere Jenkins.
Argentinian No.3 seed Guido Pella rebounded from a second-set blip to hold off Italian Roberto Marcora 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, while Japan's No.4 seed Tatsuma Ito struggled past Ecuador's Giovanni Lapentti 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
Swedish young gun Elias Ymer overcame a nervous start to down Italian Thomas Fabbiano 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, while Croatian former world No.29 Ivan Dodig made light work of American teenager Jared Donaldson 6-3, 6-2.
Germany's Dustin Brown had a quick-fire 6-1, 6-2 win over Romanian Adrian Ungur, while Australians Luke Saville - the 2011 Junior Wimbledon Champion - and No.15 seed John Millman also posted straight-sets victories.
