British player ranked No. 331 to play at Wimbledon despite losing in qualifying event
A British tennis player who is ranked 331st in the ATP rankings has secured his place in the main draw at Wimbledon - despite losing a match during the qualification process.
Max Basing, 23, had to battle back from two sets to one down against Switzerland's Remy Bertola to win 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 on Thursday afternoon.
He will now play at Wimbledon for the first time, having earned one of 16 qualifier spots for the main draw.
The Surrey-born player had been absent since March after retiring from an ITF tournament in China, before making his return at an ATP Challenger event in Birmingham at the beginning of June.
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Basing will be making his Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon - which will be made all the more remarkable by the manner in which he qualified.
He overcame the 10th qualifying seed Francesco Maestrelli in round one, before defeating Germany's Tom Gentzsch in straight sets in round two.
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That set up a final round clash against Bertola, who reached an ATP Challenger Tour final back in January.
But Basing had in fact lost in the semi-finals of the LTA's pre-qualifying event last week, which put his place in the qualifying draw in jeopardy.
He had to hope that he would receive a wildcard to play in qualifying - and didn't look back once he received it.
Speaking after his victory over Bertola, Basing told reporters: "It's been crazy to say the least. I started in pre-qualifying last week, down at Southlands in Wimbledon, got to the semis and lost there this time last week,
"I just feel super lucky and privileged to have still been given the opportunity to play this week. This whole week has just been phenomenal. It's been the week of my life. Every day's gone my way. Just super, super happy and proud of myself. Proud of all the people I work with, my family, to get to this point.
"Not many people can say they've already lost before the main draw of the tournament even starts," he said of his unusual path to the main draw. "So I think that's probably a first. But I just feel really happy and lucky to be in this spot."
Which other British players have qualified for Wimbledon?
The 23-year-old is one of three British men's players to make it through qualifying, with Billy Harris and Oliver Tarvet the others.
In the women's singles event, no British player was able to qualify, but they could still play in the Wimbledon main draw due to the Grand Slam's lucky loser system.
As always, however, British tennis will be well-represented at Wimbledon through wildcards, with six British women's players - French Open finalist Maja Chwalinska and the legendary Serena Williams make up the eight wildcard allocations - joining the already-entered trio of Emma Raducanu, Katie Boulter and Francesca Jones.
In the men's draw, Cameron Norrie, Jack Draper and Jan Choinski will be joined by another six British wildcards, with Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov and three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka taking the other wildcard slots.
Ryan Smart