Jan Choinski’s Wimbledon journey came to an end in the second round on Thursday, with 17th seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland the British No6’s conqueror.
Injury saw Choinski fall outside the top 600 players in the world last year, but the wildcard reached the second round by stunning Dusan Lajovic of Serbia on Day 1 here at SW19.
Choinski’s Polish father and English mother were both professional ballet dancers, and he competed for Germany, the country of his birth, in international tennis events until 2019.
His second-round match here on Court 18 was the first-ever tour-level encounter between Hurkacz and Choinski, but the pair go back a long way — to Wimbledon 2014, when they were juniors doubles partners. What sporting narrative there was here between Poland’s top men’s player and a Brit who could have represented Poland if he had chosen to.
On the face of it, Choinski’s serve was not a weapon as capable of garnering free points to quite the same extent as Hurkacz’s, yet so much of this sunlit encounter was founded on strong serving and very few breaks.
Choinski found himself 30-0 down and then faced a succession of break points in his second service game, but held his nerve to hold. From the Briton’s perspective, it was vital Hurkacz didn’t sense an opening in the early stages.
With Great Britain’s Davis Cup captain Leon Smith watching on, Choinski was broken in the ninth game of the first set — Hurkacz finding the right corner of the court with a powerful backhand down the line.
It was like the first set then repeated itself. With the score at 4-4 after eight games, Choinski was then broken again in the ninth and from then Hurkacz seized the moment and held out for a double 6-4.
World No164 Choinski improved his returning and so nearly took the third set himself. He had a break point when looking to take the third set 7-5, lost the point, appeared to challenge, and then retracted the challenge.
Hurkacz sneakily served immeciately, catching Choinski out, and soon it was 6-6 and a tie break. The fine margins.
Again, a case of what might have been for the 27-year-old Brit, who led 2-0 in the tiebreak but now suffered the full force of the Pole’s big serve and then produced a poor backhand. Hurkacz took it 7-3, and with it the match.
“My love for the sport is just so big. Also my love for getting better and seeing progress day by day”, Choinski said after his stunning first-round triumph over Lajovic.
There is evidence his ceiling is higher than the second round of Wimbledon. Meanwhile, the fiery 21-year-old 14th seed Lorenzo Musetti awaits Hurkacz in the third round.
