For two qualifiers, the hard-fought spot in the main tournament turned out to be the end of the line. The cannon of Guilio Zeppieri faltered somewhat, and he proved not to be up to the task against Chun-Hsin Tseng from Taiwan. Playing the ball from the backhand to the forehand corner, mixed with deep balls against the basewline with short ones close behind the net, he was sending the Italian to all corners of the court. Zeppieri could bring back quite a bit, but ultimately fell just short: a 7-5, 6-4 win for Tseng. The bravely fighting Ecuadorian Alvaro Guillen Meza also could not prevail against the experienced Stan Wawrinka. In a packed stadium, which was clearly in favor of the Swiss player, he proved to be particularly resilient under pressure, especially in the first set. He started off strongly and even managed to secure a break. Time for Wawrinka to step it up and so he did, ultimately winning the first set 6-4. In the second set, it went more smoothly for Wawrinka with a 6-1 victory. However, we cannot neglect to mention that we enjoyed the game Guillen Meza displayed here in Umag and hope he will be back next year.
As we wrote earlier, Stan stated afterwards that Umag holds a special place in his heart. He loves the Croatian audience, and that audience clearly loves him. After the match, he took plenty of time to sign autographs and take selfies with his fans. At one point, the stadium announcer called on the spectators to leave the stadium, but that, at least for Wawrinka and the eagerly waiting fans, among whom there were noticeably many children, fell on deaf ears. And as far as we are concerned, rightly so. Without an audience, there is no professional tennis, and Wawrinka shows great respect for the public!
Qualifier Titouan Droguet from France continues his winning streak with a victory over Cristian Garin from Chile (6-3, 6-3). The Spaniard Pablo Llamas Ruiz, also a qualifier, advances to the second round after his win over Pole Kamil Majchrzak (6-2, 6-4). In that second round, we will also see Frenchman Terence Atmane again. In a match against former champion (2019) Dusan Lajovic from Serbia, where emotions sometimes ran high for both players and rackets took the brunt, the Frenchman came out on top (6-3, 6-4). Carlos Taberner from Spain won against the Frenchman Pierre/Hugues Herbert (6-4, 7-6(1)) and will face the defending champion Francisco Cerundolo in the second round. Roberto Carballes Baena lost to Nikoloz Basilashvili from Georgia (6-3, 6-4). The Chilean Tomas Barrios Vera has also been eliminated. He had little to offer against the game of Mariano Navone from Argentina (6-1, 6-2). Below is a photo collage of some of the matches mentioned above.
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