20yo Munar beats Sousa in Barcelona

The four clay court tournaments in Europe have progressed a little further with some second round matches played, but in most cases the first rounds incomplete.

Barcelona:

The remaining six opening round matches were played, and one was particularly popular for the local crowd.

20 year old wildcard, Jaume Munar, was born in Barcelona and still lives there.  He is ranked 174 in the world, and this was only his second main draw ATP match for 2018.  He battled Joao Sousa, Portuguese born, but also now a Barcelona resident.  After two hours and thirty five minutes, Munar came through with a 6-4 3-6 7-5 victory.

Of the five second round matches, four seeds were successful after first round byes, and the other winner was Malek Jaziri, at the expense of lucky loser from qualifying Ernesto Escobedo.  Ernesto also had a bye, after taking the place of Andrey Rublev.

Fernando Verdasco has since withdrawn from the tournament, and the fifteenth seed’s place in the draw is taken by lucky loser in qualifying Jozef Kovalik.

Stuttgart:

Five more first round matches were played and of the ten players represented, three were from Germany and three from the Czech Republic.  These two nations last week contested a Fed Cup semi final, and faced off in two clashes today.

Wildcard Laura Siegemund gave Germany a win against the Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova 6-4 6-3

Qualifier Marketa Vondrousova struck back for the Czech Republic, defeating Germany’s number one Julia Goerges 6-2 6-2.

Germany’s wildcard Antonia Lottner lost her match, while Karolina Pliskova (5) won her way into the second round, another Czech success.

Budapest:

With just one more first round match to be played, the first seed has fallen - Marton Fucsovics (6) - beaten by lucky loser in qualifying Yannick Maden 4-6 6-3 6-2

In an epic battle, 20 year old Russian Alexander Bublik, ranked 143,  squeezed out Denis Istomin, 11 years his senior, 6-7(6) 7-6(5) 7-5

Istanbul:

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki and Irina-Camilia Begu (7) slipped easily into the second round, whereas four seeds departed the singles draw

Yulia Putintseva defeated Sorana Cirstea (6) 0-6 6-1 6-0

Donna Vekic defeated Agnieszka Radwanska (3) 6-1 2-0 (retired)

Qualifier Arantxa Rus defeated Shuai Zhang (4) 6-2 6-3

Polona Hercog defeated Aryna Sabalenka (8) 6-2 7-5