”Everyone’s going to have their views and I can obviously see both sides, but I love tennis and I will play every opportunity I can to try and get a crack out there,” said Becroft. “If we have a bit more belief that we do have some guys as a country that can match it with the best, that will take us a long way.”
Becroft said the desire to justify his wildcard had been on his mind.
”Obviously there’s a lot of outside noise, so not easy to focus on the match at hand,” said Becroft. “You feel like you need to prove to people that this isn’t just a waste of a position in the main draw.
“So juggling those things is never easy, but I felt I did a reasonably good job.”
Becroft admitted he got nervous serving for the second set at 5-3 – as the score – and his potential situation – started to play on his mind.
”It was impossible not to think about the score,” said Becroft. “You tell yourself one point at a time, keep doing what you’ve been doing. [But] I didn’t make him beat me, which is probably the thing that will annoy me most, [with] a couple of cheap errors there.”
But the positives will far outweigh the negatives, in an impressive centre court debut. This was Becroft’s first main draw match at ATP tour level, though he featured in qualifying last year, beaten by eventual champion Alejandro Tabilo.
He had played two Davis Cup singles matches but the rest of his experience was confined to College tennis – he is doing a finance degree at Oklahoma State University – and the Futures circuit.
Becroft was initially set to play world No 42 Jan-Lennard Struff before part of the draw was rejigged following injury withdrawals. That probably helped his cause, given the hard-hitting Struff has a propensity for short rallies, though Bergs is an undoubted talent.
He has reached three quarter-finals at ATP level and also progressed to the third round at Roland Garros last year as a qualifier. But Becroft was undaunted, taking an aggressive approach, which paid off for long periods.
”I just wanted to play my game,” said Becroft. “These guys are top 60, 70 in the world for a reason. I’m never going to beat them, just putting the ball in the middle of the court. So trying to be aggressive, make him feel under pressure.
“I had a lot of belief in myself. It’s not easy. You sort of have to bluff it if I’m being honest. That’s probably my biggest weakness when I’ve played guys much higher than me in the past. I haven’t bluffed it.”
Bergs’ consistency was decisive in the end but he was pushed hard in the second set, particularly in an epic 4-5 game where Becroft had two set points.
”The crowd was electric,” said Becroft. “That’s what you dream of when you were young, so really gutted I couldn’t make the most of that.”
Becroft has four months remaining at university before he plans to go full time on tour and give it “a good crack”.
In the first match on Monday, seventh seed Nuno Borges eliminated young Italian Luciano Darderi 5-7 6-3 7-5 in a tight two-hour contest.
That was followed by another quality three-setter, with Roberto Carballes Baena (Spain) prevailing 6-3 3-6 7-5 over German Daniel Altmaier in two hours and 38 minutes. The evening singles match was perhaps the best of the day, as eighth seed Alex Michelsen came back to beat Indian qualifier Sumit Nagal 6-7(8) 6-4 6-2.
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering Olympics, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns.
