All five seeds advance to second round with straight set victories at the Croatia Open in Umag.
July 22, 2024 (ATP)
Tuesday was a good day for the seeded participants at the Croatia Open in Umag. One day after No. 4 seed Olivier Rochus and No. 5 Fernando Vicente were eliminated and No. 3 Felix Mantilla pulled out of the event, all five remaining seeds were victorious.
Top seed Carlos Moya avoided the upset bug that struck Rochus and Vicente with a 7-6(1), 6-4 win against Czech Republic's Jiri Vanek. Moya recorded his 40th victory of the year, one week after suffering an upset in his opening match at Stuttgart against Tomas Behrend. The three-time Umag winner - including the last two years - improved his career mark at the event to 24-5.
No. 2 seed Fernando Gonzalez cruised into round two with a 6-4, 6-4 victory against Croatia's Lovro Zovko. Gonzalez was a semifinalist last week in Stuttgart before having to pull out of his match with Tommy Robredo mid-way through the second set with a stomach virus he could not overcome. The Chilean No. 1 improved to 24-12 on the year, which includes a 20-7 mark on clay.
No. 6 seed Rafael Nadal moved into the second round when his opponent - Romania's Adrian Voinea pulled out of the match with a right pectoral injury. In what ended as a real see-saw matchup, Nadal won the first three games of the match, followed by Voinea winning the next three games and Nadal winning the final four games before Voinea called it quits. Also advancing on Tuesday was No. 7 seed Filippo Volandri of Italy who moved into the next round following his easy 6-3, 6-0 win against Hungary's Attila Savolt. Volandri, who reached the quarterfinals in back-to-back weeks at Bastad and Stuttgart, improved to 14-11 on the year.
Croatian lucky loser Sasa Tuksar picked up his first career ATP victory when Spain's Albert Montanes was forced to withdraw from their match with an ankle sprain. Tuksar won the opening set 7-5 when Montanes retired from the match. Also advancing to the second round was Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka. Wawrinka, who recorded his first ATP victory last week in Amersfoort, reached the second round in as many weeks with a 6-4, 6-4 win against Croatia's Roko Karanusic.
Sweden's Magnus Norman ended a 10-match losing streak with his come-from-behind win against Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID
Rafael Nadal: "I played well early on and then he came back a bit and I didn't play as well. But I felt like I was hitting the ball well towards the end of the first set."
About increased expectations: "I'm just working hard and trying to get better and improve. There are a lot of guys I look up to that I have learned from. My win over Moya this year was very important and I would say guys like Costa, Moya and Agassi are guys that I would look up to as champions."
Magnus Norman: "It's nice to get a win again. I was struggling the last few weeks and I even struggled to win that match, so I'm glad to have pulled it out."
"One thing I've learned over the years is not to take your wins for granted. You need to just look to the next match as the next challenge and play your best."
"It was a tough stretch, so I'm really relieved."
WEDNESDAY MATCHES
Second round action begins at the Croatia Open in Umag on Wedneday as No. 6 seed Rafael Nadal takes on Argentina's Mariano Puerta. Nadal improved to 11-6 on the year with his first round victory against Adrian Voinea. The 17-year-old Mallorca, Spain native continues his climb up the ATP Rankings and is seeded this week in Umag for the first time in his young career. Nadal's match against Puerta will be a rematch of the Challenger final in Aix En Provence, France in late April when Puerta surprised the young Spaniard with a three-set victory.
Another rising star on the men's circuit, Mario Radic, will be in action against ATP veteran Dominik Hrbaty. Radic won his second career ATP match - and first of 2003 - on Monday by toppling Italy's Giorgio Galimberti. The 21-year-old who was born in Split, Croatia will have his second meeting his Hrbaty, who emerged victorious from their one prior face-off, a straight sets win at the Biella Challenger last year.
Croatia's representation on Wednesday doesn't stop with Radic, as 6 foot, 10 inch Croat Ivo Karlovic takes on Alberto Martin. Karlovic's status in his native country and across the globe rose with his upset of Lleyton Hewitt in the first round at Wimbledon. Karlovic's breakthrough on the ATP circuit could continue if he is able to get past Martin, who upset No. 4 seed Olivier Rochus in the first round. In other action, Croatian lucky loser Sasa Tuksar won his first ATP match on Tuesday and will look to match it two in a row against Sweden's Magnus Norman, who ended a 10-match losing streak in the first round by defeating Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo.
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