Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia took down seventh seed Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in the first round of the Croatia Open in Umag on Monday.
Fognini was the only seeded player in action Monday and could not outlast the 99th-ranked Galan in the two-hour, 43-minute match. Galan saved 11 of 16 break points and benefitted from Fognini’s nine double faults.
Italian qualifiers Marco Cecchinato and Giulio Zeppieri advanced with three-set victories. Cecchinato was a 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 winner over Croatian wild card Mili Poljicak, and Zeppieri defeated Argentina’s Pedro Cachin 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
A pair of Spaniards also advanced. Robert Carballes Baena beat Switzerland’s Henri Laaksonen 6-4, 7-5, and Jaume Munar ousted Sweden’s Mikael Ymer 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Generali Open
Portuguese eighth seed Joao Sousa smashed six aces and saved four of five break points to defeat Czech qualifier Vit Kopriva 6-1, 7-5 on the first day of action in Kitzbuhel, Austria.
Two Austrian wild cards, playing in their home country, made it to the next round. Filip Misolic beat Brazil’s Daniel Dutra da Silva 6-2, 7-6 (6) and Jurij Rodionov bested Hernan Casanova of Argentina 6-4, 6-2.
Monday’s other winners were Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic, the Czech Republic’s Jiri Lehecka and Peru’s Juan Pablo Varillas.
Atlanta Open
No. 8 seed Brandon Nakashima went the distance to defeat Australian Jordan Thompson 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-3 in opening-round action in Atlanta.
Thompson served a whopping 16 aces and won 53 of 63 first-service points (84.1 percent). Nakashima was stronger on second-service points, winning 13 of 20 (65 percent). Nakashima was the runner-up at last year’s Atlanta Open, losing the final to John Isner.
Two other Americans didn’t fare as well as Nakashima. Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel rallied to beat Sebastian Korda 1-6, 6-1, 6-3, and South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon took down Marcos Giron 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-5 in a match lasting over two hours and 42 minutes.
In a duel of Australians, John Millman defeated Alexei Popyrin 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-3.
–Field Level Media