The story of Roberto Bautista Agut’s bachelor party delay won him plenty of new fans this fortnight, but the Spaniard can finally relax with the boys after his Wimbledon came to a close on Friday.
Bautista Agut was scheduled to be in Ibiza this week with six friends, but his maiden Wimbledon quarter-final hampered the festivities. Most bachelor parties don’t span two countries, but his friends relocated to London after the No. 23 seed beat Guido Pella on Wednesday for his first Grand Slam semi-final.
After his competitive four-set loss to Novak Djokovic, Bautista Agut intends to at least get some use out of his Ibiza reservations.
“We had everything reserved from Wednesday or Thursday until Sunday. They all knew before there was a small chance for me to be here, playing in the quarter-finals,” said Bautista Agut. “I think they really had a good plan. They spent Wednesday in Ibiza. They came to watch a good match, the semi-final of Wimbledon. They came yesterday as a surprise. It was really nice to have them in the crowd. They support me so much.
“Maybe tomorrow we come back [to Ibiza]. I think I deserve some vacation. We will have some time off after that.”
Bautista Agut lamented that the scoreline in the last two sets against Djokovic didn’t reflect his performance. The Spaniard hit 18 winners to 14 errors and won 49 points overall (compared to 63 for Djokovic), but the quality was so high from the Serbian that Bautista Agut still only managed to win five games.
“I think I deserved a little bit more in the third set,” said Bautista Agut. “The third set for me was the best set of the match. We both played very good tennis.”
Despite the loss, Bautista Agut is on track to make 2019 his best season yet. The 31-year-old opened the year with a title in Doha (d. Berdych) and his first Grand Slam quarter-final at the Australian Open. He’s projected to re-enter the Top 15 of the ATP Rankings on Monday and will be just shy of his career-high standing of No. 13. The Spaniard will also jump to No. 7 in the ATP Race To London and be in contention to make his debut at the Nitto ATP Finals, held in London at The O2 from 10-17 November.
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But Bautista Agut doesn’t intends for this fortnight to be his pinnacle moment. He hopes to build on the experience and put himself in position for more memorable moments in the world’s biggest events.
“Every experience I had in my tennis career made me a better player, made me do things better the next time,” said Bautista Agut. “A lot of experiences today in the match. A lot of new situations. A lot of new emotions. I’m happy for the way I played, happy with the result I had here in Wimbledon.”.readfullarticle
