The year's third Grand Slam tournament saw a milestone for USTA Foundation Excellence Program alumna Robin Montgomery.
The 19-year-old American, a product of the Junior Tennis Champions Center, a National Junior Tennis and Learning chapter in College Park, Md., qualified for the main draw at Wimbledon, and also earned her first career Grand Slam main-draw win before losing to two-time defending finalist and Top 10 player Ons Jabeur, 6-1, 7-5.
Montgomery had previously lost in the first round at the 2020 and 2023 US Opens, but after three wins in qualifying, she defeated Australia's Olivia Gadecki 6-4, 6-4 on Court 11 at the All England Club last Tuesday for her milestone win. Against Jabeur, she led for much of the second set before the Tunisian won the last three games.
Montgomery's effort in qualifying at Roehampton, just up the road from the All England Club, was also notable: Unseeded, she came from a set down in her first-round qualifying win, and won a 3-hour, 1-minute epic against Kamilla Rakhimova in the second round, 7-6(0), 6-7(4), 7-6(4). It was the joint second-longest match of women's qualifying.
The Wimbledon result was the latest benchmark moment in what's been a steady season of improvement for Montgomery. She also reached the third round in Madrid, pushing reigning Australian Open winner Aryna Sabalenka to three sets, and her first WTA tour-level quarterfinal on the grass in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands before Wimbledon, where she lost to two-time defending champion Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Montgomery is projected to rise to a new career-high ranking of No. 138 in the new WTA rankings that will be released on the Monday after Wimbledon concludes.