World No. 132 Roman Safiullin has caused one of the biggest upsets of the ongoing Wimbledon Championships. He made it through to the fourth round by defeating Joao Fonseca 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. Having entered the Grand Slam as a qualifier, Safiullin has already racked up six victories. This is an incredible run of results for the Russian, as it was just less than a year ago that he had sustained a career-threatening injury.

Safiullin had picked up a serious hip injury after the US Open that had forced him to miss many tournaments. He remained out of action for almost six months before eventually returning in February. The 28-year-old failed to control his emotions and burst into tears as he reflected on his recovery period after defeating Fonseca.

“After U.S. Open, I had to stop to treat my injury,” he said during his post-match interview. “That time was super tough. Even half a year ago I didn’t know if I’d be able to be back. I didn’t know. I’m super happy to be back here.”

Seeing this, his wife Liudmyla Smolanova also got emotional in the stands, showing just how much the result meant for the entire family.

Safiullin has mostly played Challenger events ever since making his return earlier this year. His eventual return to the ATP tour would come at the French Open in May. He made it past the three qualifying matches on that occasion as well, but then fell to Casper Ruud in the first round. But the Russian managed to bring a major change to his fortunes at the SW19.

Wimbledon has been a special tournament for Safiullin. It was here in 2023 that he had achieved his best-ever result at a Grand Slam and had reached the quarterfinals before being eliminated by Jannik Sinner. So, the 28-year-old very well knew that this was the one tournament where he could turn the tables around. And that is exactly what he did.

Safiullin began his campaign with comfortable wins over James Mccabe and Kimmer Coppejans. But he had to fight incredibly hard in the final qualifying match against Jerome Kym. The two would give it their all for the main draw spot in an almost five-hour thriller. Safiullin came back from behind to claim a dramatic 4-6, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 victory.

His next match would again be quite grueling as Andrey Rublev provided an even tougher challenge. The match would go the distance and would be decided with a super tiebreaker in the fifth set. Safiullin clinched the breaker 14-12 to record a stunning 6-4, 6-7, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 win. If this already wasn’t enough, then Safiullin faced another five-set clash just two days later.

He faced Botic van de Zandschulp in the second round in a match that was once again decided through a tiebreaker in the fifth set. Safiullin managed to survive once again and triumphed 6-0, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 after almost four hours.

The Russian will be relieved after defeating Fonseca rather comfortably and will be waiting eagerly to know his fourth-round opponent, which will either be Novak Djokovic or Arthur Rinderknech.