The beautiful ATP-250 clay tournament in Umag has started again. The first qualifying round has been played and it was disappointing for the Croats. All three were eliminated. Matija Pecotic received a wild card for the qualifications and fought a fierce battle with Marco Trungelliti, but was defeated by the Argentinian with the set scores 6-3, 6-3. Alternate Nino Serdarusic, last year’s doubles tournament winner together with Blaz Rola, did slightly better with 4 games per set against Guido Andreozzi from Argentina, but still lost. The last Croat, Deni Zmak, also failed to cash in on his wildcard. He lost 2-6, 4-6 to the Taiwanese Chun-Hsin Tseng.

The tournament is also over for Zsombor Piros from Hungary. After a 6-1 defeat in the first set against the Portuguese Henrique Rocha, he managed to reach a score of 6-6 in the second so a tie-break had to be played. Unfortunately for him this tie-break was won by Rocha (4-7). Jozef Kovalik was seeded number 1 in the qualifications but can still pack his bags. In a thrilling match, he eventually lost against the Austrian Filip Misolic (4-6, 7-6 (8-6), 3-6). Furthermore, Frenchman Enzo Couacaud defeated Portuguese Jaime Faria (6-0, 4-6, 6-2) and now faces Argentinian Renzo Olivo who defeated Spaniard Oriol Roca Batalla (6-3, 5-7, 6-1). The other Spaniard in the qualifications, David Jorda Sanchis, is through, albeit by the skin of his teeth. Three sets had to be played against Nick Hardt from the Dominican Republic, two of which ended in a tiebreak 7-6 (3), 5-7, 7-6 (5).

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