Wimbledon 2024: Who is Mark Lajal, the Estonian qualifier playing against Carlos Alcaraz in first round?

World No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz begins his Wimbledon title defence with an opening-round clash against Estonian qualifier Mark Lajal on Centre Court at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London on Monday.

The match is scheduled to begin at 1:30PM local time (6PM IST).

Who is Mark Lajal?

In recent history, Estonian tennis has been in the news majorly due to two female players – Anett Kontaveit, the former World No. 2 who retired last year, and 39-year-old Kaia Kanepi. As far as the men are concerned, former World No. 71 Jurgen Zopp was the last prominent name.

Mark Lajal is one of only three Estonian men who are currently in Top 1000 in the ATP Rankings. He is ranked 269th in the world but has a career-high ranking of 191. The 21-year-old is set to make his Grand Slam debut after a successful qualifying campaign in Roehampton last week. He defeated Italy’s Francesco Passaro 5-7, 6-3, 6-3; Portugal’s Henrique Rocha 7-6(3), 6-3, and Australia’s James Duckworth 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to book his spot in the main draw.

The 6’3” tall Lajal, who is right-handed, comes from a family with a motorsport background. His father, Mart, was a motocross racer and grandfather was a rally driver. “When I was younger, from like three years old, I started racing motorcycles. I raced them until I was eight or nine years old,” Lajal told atptour.com in an interview.

When he was six years old, his father went on a road trip. His mother, Merilyn, did not like motocross races and therefore, got Lajal to play tennis. He still follows motorsport, particularly Formula One and his favourite driver is three-time world champion Max Verstappen, the Dutch driver from Red Bull Racing.

Lajal hails from the Estonian capital of Tallinn but left home aged 15 to train at Mouratoglou Tennis Academy. He had a career-high ranking of 13 on the junior ITF circuit. He played his first senior ITF event in August 2021. Next year, he clinched three titles on the ITF circuit with the biggest of them, a 25k USD one, coming in Monastir. In 2022 itself, he got his first taste of the ATP Challenger Tour in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he qualified for the main draw before losing in the second round.

In 2023, a year after his Challenger Tour debut, Lajal made his first final in Little Rock, Arkansas where he defeated Kazakhstan’s Beibit Zhukayev 6-4, 7-5 to lift the title. He became only the second-ever man from Estonia to win a title at this level since Zopp.

He also made his Tour-level debut last year as he was awarded a main-draw wildcard for the European Open, an ATP 250 event in Antwerp, Belgium. He took down Spain’s Jaume Munar in the first round before losing to Frenchman Arthur Fils, the eventual runner-up, in the second.

After three straight first-round defeats in the qualifying rounds of the last three Majors, Lajal not only managed to bag his first win but went all the way in Roehampton.

Lajal is set to become the first Estonian man since Zopp (French Open, 2018) to feature in the main draw of a Slam and also, at Wimbledon (Zopp, 2014).

Have Alcaraz and Lajal ever faced each other?

This will be the first-ever meeting at any level between Alcaraz and Lajal.

Has the men’s defending champion ever lost in the opening round at Wimbledon?

In the Open Era, Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt is the only man who won Wimbledon and lost in the opening round the following year. Hewitt clinched the title in 2002 but was knocked out in the first round in 2003 by Ivo Karlovic.

Where to watch Wimbledon 2024 in India?

In India, live telecast of Wimbledon 2024 will be available on the Star Sports Network while the live streaming will be available on Disney+Hotstar app and website.