Mark Lajal: The Estonian who dreamed of running is now playing Alcaraz at Wimbledon

Estonia’s Mark Lajal was in the car on his way to the venue on Friday, the day after qualifying for Wimbledon. The 21-year-old suspect was enjoying a ride with his mother, coach and driver, when he got a shock.

“My friend was watching the live draw when they were picking [players] and I remember they called, ‘Carlos Alcaraz is going to play’… and it was like, ‘Number 122, Mark Lajal’,” he told ATPTour.com. “We started screaming, everyone was screaming in our car. I was scared because they started screaming and then, ‘Oh hey, I’m playing Carlos’.”

The number 262 player in the PIF ATP Rankings will enjoy a memorable welcome to the main draw. In his first three attempts to enter a Grand Slam tournament, Lajal lost in the first round. Now not only is he qualified, but the Estonian will open the event on Center Court against the defending champion.

“I don’t know if it has really sunk in because it is amazing. “Once I’ve won, it’s obviously a big thing for me to enter and one of my goals this year was to qualify for the Grand Slam,” said Lajal. “For the first time, I wanted to play a big man, have a big first game. But for some reason, Carlos never crossed my mind. So when I saw Carlos, I said, ‘Oh my God, I’m playing Carlos’.

“My friend then told me, ‘You know, you’re going to open the Central Court’. I said, ‘Wait, that’s true!’ That is the tradition. So to me that is unbelievable. I will play Carlos on Center Court as my first match. I don’t know if it has sunk in yet. But I’m very happy, honestly. “

After reading the draw, Lajal was at the Wimbledon training ground Aorangi Park with his team. They passed the court where Alcaraz was practicing with Flavio Cobolli.

“Cobolli hit a big winner, and then we started walking,” said Lajal. “Juan Carlos [Ferrero], he comes to me, he says, ‘Don’t do that on Monday’. I started laughing.”

Lajal and Alcaraz hadn’t met until Saturday, when they briefly crossed paths during Media Day at SW19. The Spaniard is a three-time major champion, while the Estonian is preparing for his first Slam draw.

It’s an exciting time for a player who wasn’t born to play tennis, but to race. Lajal’s father, Mart, was a motocross rider. His grandfather, Hardi Mets, was a rally driver. Mark’s favorite racer was motocross star Antonio Cairoli. He now enjoys following his compatriot, rally driver Ott Tanak and Formula One star Max Verstappen.

“I don’t remember exactly how old I was to drive. I think I was like three, so I was very young. But I started when I was two, two and a half years old, then I rode bikes, children, so I was born into it,” said Lajal. “Then my father put me there and I had my little motorbike, and I was just going around the house outside in the garden. Then as I got older, obviously I got older, I got bigger motorcycles. I wasn’t pushed into it, but it was part of the family. It was normal for us to do it.”

Lajal ran in Estonia and was determined to follow his family’s path. But when he was young, his father took a trip and everything changed.

“My mother didn’t want to put me in motocross, so she put me in tennis [while he was away] and that’s how we started,” said Lajal. “I was doing both at the same time. Then as time went on, I started running less and playing tennis more. And then at one point, I was like, ‘I like tennis. I want to play tennis’. My parents welcomed me well. They were like, ‘Yeah, go’.

To this day, Lajal vividly remembers his first tennis practice.

“I was proud of it. “First of all, I was playing right and left, so I had two forwards,” said Lajal. Then behind the front, I was going around after the shot. I just remember the first one so clearly and I was so proud of it. I came home and I said, ‘Mom, look at my apron!’”

By age 10, Lajal was competing at the national level and was one of the best Estonians in his age group. He played small tournaments in countries such as Finland and Latvia before traveling extensively from 12. Two years later, Lajal moved to the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy, run by Patrick Mouratoglou. He is still based there today.

“From there I was obviously very dedicated and determined, but it took longer than I would have liked for me to focus and commit,” Lajal said. “At 14, 15, I was young everywhere and it’s normal when you’re young, but I think at 16 and 17, that’s when I really started to do my own thing.”

Estonia is not known for its rich tennis history. WTA standout Kaia Kanepi has flown the flag for her country throughout her career. Jurgen Zopp did the same on the ATP side, reaching world number 71 in 2012. Zopp advanced to the third round at Roland Garros in 2018, but did not win a match at Wimbledon.

“Seeing those two amazing players from a small country, it’s obvious that it inspires us all. But I can say more, it was Jurgen,” said Lajal. “I was watching him on TV. He was a legend in Estonia. He was great.”

If Lajal beats Alcaraz, who is a week older than him, he will become the third man in history to upset the defending champion in the first round at Wimbledon and the second Estonian in history to reach the second round of The Championships.

For those unfamiliar with last year’s Little Rock ATP Challenger Tour champion, he brings a lively personality and palpable energy to the court. “I am an honest person. I say what I hear. The way I am on the court and the way I am outside the court, I am my true self,” he said.

Fans will soon see her light blondes again. Hair style back to her childhood.

“When I was six years old, my half-sister made dreadlocks and I was very impressed. I said, ‘Mum, I want it, I want it, I need it’. My mom was like it’s just hair, it’s just for summer. I did it and I liked it and stayed with it,” said Lajal. “So it was with me for a long, long, long time. Changed, short, long. At one point it was really long and I cut it off. Now it’s funny too, because all my professional games, I always played with a hat. And then I had a bad line here from the hat.

“I was very frustrated. I was like, ‘I have a week to practice. I’ll just put the hair in and just take the tanline out’. And I was just happy to go with it. And then I said, ‘You know what, it’s Wimbledon, you have to do something different. If there’s a place to do something different, it’s Wimbledon’.

A tournament known far and wide in tennis. Lajal received a site visit from a member of the event’s outreach team and noticed a quote from Rudyard Kipling’s poem. If shown above the door of the Central Court:

“If you can meet Triumph and Disaster
And those two deceivers behaved alike”

“Many players touch this thing before they go to court. And you could see there was one part that was just used. You can see the wear on it, so I kind of thought that’s where I should touch it, so I touched it. Good,” said Lajal. “I was really happy. But at the same time, I thought, ‘Okay, I’m qualified. Good. But technically the tournament is still starting. It’s just the beginning’. So I was happy because I would say an hour. And I was back at it. So we celebrated a little in the evening, we had pizza. Then the next day, I went back to it.”