From panda-dressing to Grand Slam match-win: Mejia's SW19 milestone
Good things come to those who wait. It may not have arrived as early in his career as he may have hoped but Colombia’s Nicolas Mejia has a Grand Slam main draw match-win to his name – and nobody can ever take that from him.
Having fallen in qualifying on four previous occasions, Mejia sealed his place in the Wimbledon main draw after negotiating three rounds of qualifying and celebrating in suitably jubilant fashion.
On his first taste of a Grand Slam main draw, the 26-year-old took this whole adventure a step further by dispatching Paraguay’s Daniel Vallejo to set-up a second-round showdown with fellow qualifier Michael Zheng of the United States.
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Mejia is a former junior world No. 4 who reached the semi-finals of the 2018 Junior Championships, Wimbledon where he lost to Great Britain’s Jack Draper. The decisive set in that last-four tussle lasted an incredible four hours and 23 minutes and finished 19-17 in Draper’s favour.
Mejia also competed at the 2018 World Tennis Tour Junior Finals in Chengdu – the junior equivalent of the ATP and WTA Finals. There, he dressed as a panda during a social media game and took to the karaoke mic alongside Italy Lorenzo Musetti at the players' party.
It was in 2018 that he also made his Davis Cup debut for Colombia, and he has since chalked up 12 appearances in national team colours, including those at the 2021 Davis Cup Finals in Turin.
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Mejia has advanced along the player pathway since 2018, winning World Tennis Tour titles before mainly focusing upon ATP Challenger Tour events. Mejia has won four in recent years, most recently at San Luis Potosi in Mexico in April.
A Grand Slam match-win was therefore a natural progression but what a moment for a player who now finds himself at No. 165 in the ATP Rankings, having reached a career-high No. 150 earlier this year.
It is also worth pointing out that Mejia is another player to have received financial support through the Grand Slam Player Development Programme in the form of a Grand Slam Player Grant. He received $25,000 in 2020.
In addition, Mejia previously wrote blog pieces for World Tennis and spoke very eloquently on a number of topics, so it is wonderful to see him achieving what he is – and enjoying every second.