site.btaTwo Bulgarians Qualify for Wimbledon Juniors' Semifinals for First Time in 25 Years

Two Bulgaria players have qualified for the men's draw of the Wimbledon Juniors Championships on Thursday for the first time in 25 years. Ivan Ivanov and Alexander Vasilev won their respective matches to earn their place in the last four of the Grand Slam tournament.

The last time two Bulgarians achieved this feat was in 2000 when Todor Enev and Radoslav Lukaev managed to do so before losing to Mario Ancic and Nicolas Mahut. 

Ivanov recorded his fourth straight win without losing a set. The 16-year-old Bulgarian scored a 6-3 7-6(4) victory over Slovenian Ziga Sesko. 

Later in the day, 18-year-old Vasilev had to fight for 2:20 hours against Thijs Boogaard before winning 6-4 5-7 6-3. 

The two Bulgarians are on opposite sides of the draw, which keeps the chance of all-Bulgarian final alive. Ivanov will meet German Max Schoenhaus while Vasilev will meet American Ronit Karki. Both are higher seeds than their respective opponents. Ivanov and Schoenhaus played against each other in the Roland Garros semifinals with the German winning 6-3 6-4.

The only Bulgarian to ever win the junior Wimbledon Championships is the country's most successful player Grigor Dimitrov in 2008. This year he reached the fourth round of the men's competition, where he secured a 2-set lead against world No. 1 Jannick Sinner before suffering and injury and retiring at 2-2 in the third. 

Both Ivanov and Vasilev are part of top 10 of the World Tennis Tour Junior Rankings - Ivanov is sixth while Vasilev stands at No. 10. Before the start of the tournament, Ivanov was named as one of the favourites to win the title by the official International Tennis Federation website.