Ranked 101st in the world in tennis, Solana Sierra became the first Argentine female tennis player to take a win at a Grand Slam in over a year on Monday, beating Australian Olivia Gadecki (103) 6-2, 7-6 (8) on her Wimbledon debut. However, the 21-year-old from Mar del Plata wasn’t even supposed to be there, and was only told she was competing hours before she appeared.

Sierra needed to go through the qualifiers to access the singles main draw, but fell at the final hurdle, losing to Australian Talia Gibson in three sets. However, players who lost at the last round of qualifiers are encouraged to remain in the country, as they’re the first to access the draw if any qualified players drop out. With just an hour remaining until the start of the tournament, German Greet Minnen dropped out and Sierra was selected as the “lucky loser” to face Gadecki.

What followed was a masterful demonstration, as Sierra took an early and commanding lead, winning the first set 6-2. The second was a much tighter affair, where she faced four set points for Gadecki. She held, and went on to win 10-8 in the second set tiebreak.

Sierra’s win is the first for an Argentine in women’s singles at a Grand Slam since Nadia Podoroska’s at the 2024 Australian Open. 

She will now face the tough challenge of a player on home turf. Katie Boulter awaits in the second round, after she beat world number nine Paula Badosa, from Spain, by 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.

A precocious talent

Sierra’s passion for tennis started at a young age, in her native Mar del Plata. She started playing racket sports from age two, with her father, who took her to train with former professional Bettina Fulco, who led the Argentine Billie Jean King tennis squad from 2010 to 2013. 

Fulco refused to take her in, arguing she was still too young to train, but guided Sierra’s father in how to coach her, acquiring a set of special low-pressure balls that bounce lower and help children learn the guide more naturally.

Around the age of six her skills were far ahead of those of her age, meaning she often played against older girls or boys. When she turned nine, she started training with coach Hernán Cortez. The experienced trainer told Mar del Plata outlet La Capital how he used to take Sierra to tournaments on his car across the country, even playing in Brasil. 

“The car’s got 420 thousand kilometers, of which 350 thousand probably are the result of taking Solana to championships,” he said. “Now I don’t want to sell it.”

Sierra was the top ranked player in Argentina at the U-12 and U-14 categories, and won the U-14 South American Championship in Ecuador, in 2018. She took her first WTA point aged just 14 years and four months, at the Villa del Dique Futures tournament in Córdoba, and went on to shine in her junior career, reaching the US Open girls semi-final in 2021 and the Roland Garros girls final in 2022.

“At all times I thought she was going to make it [as a pro],” said Fulco, who took over her coaching at 14. “She was cold-headed when competing. She wouldn’t get angry, didn’t throw matches away, you couldn’t even tell if she was nervous.”

Since then, she’s gone on to win six ITF-level tournaments in 2024, getting branded as one of the “most promising talents of the year” by the ITF World Tennis Tour. She won her biggest conquest of the year in 2025, lifting the Antalaya WTA125, along with two other ITF-level tournaments.

“Its a great year for me,” she told Spanish news EFE after reaching the Valencia WTA 125 quarter finals. “I’ve been able to secure several of the targets I had, but I keep dreaming and working for it. I want to improve my ranking, but I try not to think about that and focus on my game, which is the most important thing to test myself in big tournaments.”

Navone through, Cerundolo out

Sierra’s win was the only for Argentines on the first day of Wimbledon. In the men’s draw, top-ranked Argentine men Francisco Cerúndolo faced Portugal’s Nuno Borges. Despite entering as the 16th-seeded player, Cerúndolo continued with his poor run at the majors, falling 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 0-6. 

Mariano Navone will lead Agentina’s male hopes in the second round. He beat 27th seeded Canadian Denis Shapovalov 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4, to set up a match with Spanish player Pedro Martínez.

Meanwhile, Sebastián Báez and Tomás Etcheverry exited the competition at the first hurdle. Báez was two sets down to fourth-seeded Jack Draper, before he retired through injury in the third set. Etchverry also lost out to a British opponent, falling in straight sets to Jack Pinnington Jones. Camilo Ugo Carabelli also lost via a straight-set defeat to U.S. player Marcos Giron, as did Francisco Comesana, who was beaten by Corentin Moutet of France.

Additional reporting by Christopher Martin