Alexei Popyrin came to Umag to defend his title, but he didn’t get past the first round. The Czech Jakub Mensik effectively thwarted him. The Australian never really got into his game and made too many unnecessary mistakes and lacked the conviction to make things difficult for Mensik. The Czech won easily 6-3, 6-2. His compatriot Thomas Machac fared less successfully. Although he also won the first set 6-3 against Thiago Monteiro, the Brazilian then stepped up his game and took control of the match and won 6-3, 6-3 in the next two sets.

The Italian fans saw Matteo Arnaldi lose against Alexandre Müller on Sunday and hoped for more success from their compatriots Flavio Cobolli and Lorenzo Sonego. Cobolli faced sixth-seeded Argentinian Mariano Navone, but never really got into trouble. He won 6-2 and 6-3. Lorenzo Sonego’s match was completely different. He played against Mili Poljicak, who had received a wildcard from tournament director Tomislav Poljak. Poljicak is number 481 on the ATP rankings and Sonego is number 54. In theory not a very difficult task for Sonego and in line with expectations he won the first set (6-2). But then two tiebreaks had to be played because Mili wanted to show what he was worth in front of his own audience in the Goran-Ivanisevic stadium. The Italian was bombarded with cannonballs from well over 200 km during the Croat’s serves and Mili threw everything he had into the fight with unprecedented fanaticism. It not only earned him the support of the audience, but also the second set. In the tiebreak he only had to concede one point. There was also a tiebreak in the third set. Sonego crawled through the eye of the needle and won 11-9. A narrow escape for the Italian, but he advances to the second round.