Roman Safiullin has reached the third round at Wimbledon the hard way, twice over. The Russian qualifier has won two consecutive five-set matches, both settled in the deciding-set tiebreak, and now stands among the more improbable survivors in the bottom half of the men’s draw.
The gauntlet. In the first round, Safiullin beat No. 12 seed Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-7(6), 3-6, 6-3, 7-6, recovering from two sets to one down and saving match points before taking the fifth-set tiebreak 14-12 in a match just short of four hours. Two days later he did much the same to Botic van de Zandschulp, splitting the first four sets before closing out 6-0, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 in another deciding tiebreak. Add the three matches he won in qualifying at Roehampton, and Safiullin has played his way into the last 32 on grass without the cushion of a single routine win.
Why the format matters. Wimbledon settles a level deciding set with a first-to-10 tiebreak at 6-6, the format all four majors adopted in 2022 after years of divergent rules — a convergence whose logic traces directly back to the 2010 Isner–Mahut marathon. The tiebreak compresses a fifth set into a handful of points, and it rewards a specific profile: the player who serves cleanly and holds his nerve when a single mini-break decides everything. Safiullin fit it against Rublev, winning 86 percent of his first-serve points in the decider and never facing a break, leaving the match to the breaker — the exact terrain where he has been strongest this week.
The cost, and what is next. Safiullin is a former Wimbledon quarterfinalist, having reached the last eight in 2023, also as a qualifier, before losing to Jannik Sinner. But deep runs cut both ways. Two five-set matches across his opening rounds mean far more time on court than most of the seeds around him, and his reward is a third-round meeting with No. 24 seed João Fonseca, the 19-year-old Brazilian who has moved through his opening two matches in straight sets. The contrast frames the tie: a qualifier already carrying the miles of a long tournament against one of the freshest players left in the section.
For Safiullin, the deciding-set tiebreak has been both the obstacle and the escape. It is a format built to end long matches quickly, and twice this week it has ended them in his favor.
