Matusevich admits he has lots to learn after Harrison defeat in Wimbledon qualifying

Kent star Anton Matusevich believes there is plenty to learn from his defeat to Christian Harrison in the opening round of Wimbledon qualifying.

Matusevich, who benefits from the LTA’s NTC Access programme which provides cost-free access to courts on all three surfaces, coaching, trainers and the LTA’s tournament bonus scheme, fell 6-3 6-4 to the American.

The 21-year-old had battled through a tough two days of pre-qualifying to reach this stage, and despite fatigue believed there were positives to take looking ahead.

He commented: “I had played pre-qualifying and I had to play six sets in one day, so my body’s pretty tired from that.

“There was quite a lot of matches, everyone’s going to be trying extra hard for qualifying to Wimbledon. You put any extra effort in but the others do as well and it was quite difficult.

“It was actually a really good experience as well, very nice organisation by Wimbledon. It was awesome, and here as well – it’s always good to play out here.

“Pre-qualifying was pretty tough as I was a wildcard so to get in here, there was quite a lot of tennis before that. I kind of felt a little bit low on energy, but hitting it fine and just hopefully using that as a learning experience into later matches.”

Having been pleased with his aggressive style of play during the past few days, he now wants to improve and cut down on mistakes as he targets the top 300.

Matusevich said: “In the past few days and in this match, I was definitely aggressive on the court which was nice. I do a hit a lot of winners which is nice to see, but I do need to hit a few less errors, move my feet a bit more and adjust. Hopefully that will help my game as well.

“For the rest of the season, I just want to try and win a [ITF] 25K event. I’m going to get back on the clay, that’s what I want to do – try and win some 25K’s and get my ranking up to around the top 300 by the end of the year, which I think is very doable.”