A short distance from Wimbledon, players struggle and strive to qualify for the main draw

By George Ramsay, CNN

Updated 0859 GMT (1659 HKT) June 22, 2022

The Wimbledon qualifying tournament runs from June 20-23 in Roehampton.

Roehampton, London (CNN)It's unmistakably a scene from the British summer: across a stretch of green, well-kept courts, tennis players shoot balls over the net as spectators — some seated, some sprawled on grass banks — watch on in the lazy afternoon heat.

This is Wimbledon — the third grand slam tournament of the calendar year — but the venue and the competitors are not quite as most know it. At this tennis club, the crowds are smaller, the cheers quieter, and the courts packed closer together than at the All England Club three miles away. While the Wimbledon main draw may not get underway until next week, for more than 250 players the journey to get there has already begun. The four-day qualification tournament in the London district of Roehampton can be a golden ticket for the Wimbledon main stage — a place at which some players have dreamed of competing their whole careers. «I haven't actually been to the main set at Wimbledon since my last years in juniors in 2012. It's been 10 years,» American Mitchell Krueger tells CNN Sport. Read More«And actually, where we stay is right next to the gate at Wimbledon. Every day I'm so close — I can see it, but I haven't actually been through the gates in 10 years, so that would obviously be amazing to be there once again.»Prior to Monday, Krueger had never won a match at the Wimbledon qualifiers — affectionately known as «qualies.» But a 6-1 6-4 victory against Britain's Luca Pow saw the 28-year-old take a small but significant step towards the main draw. «I've played a lot of close matches in the first rounds, but I've never actually got over the