Cecchinato continues good run

The first rounds have been completed in the five tournaments in progress on the WTA/ ATP Tours and on Day Two of main draw activity seeds tumbled at most venues.

Estoril:

Federico Delbonis defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas (5) 6-2 6-4

Albert began the year ranked 23 and stayed in the 19-24 range until 23 April when he slipped to 40.  This was because he failed to defend the points won from his finals appearance in the 2017 Monte Carlo Masters 1000 tournament.

After losses in his first two matches to start 2018, he hit a good patch of form, making the third round at the Australian Open, winning both singles in the Davis Cup tie against Great Britain, and coming runner up in the Ecuador Open.

Since then, however, returns have been lean for the Spaniard, not just on the court.  Five wins from twelve visits to the court (now thirteen) and all but one of those matches on his favourite clay surface.

Cameron Norrie defeated Robin Haase (6) 6-4 3-6 6-3

Nicolás Jarry defeated Leonardo Mayer (7) 3-6 7-6(7) 6-4

Joao Sousa defeated Daniil Medvedev (8) 7-6(1) 7-5

Munich:

Marco Cecchinato defeated Fabio Fognini (5) 5-7 6-3 6-2

Cecchinato won in Budapest last week, and continues his good form in Germany.  After achieving a career high ranking of 82 in October 2015, Marco has since struggled to make it into the top 100.  However he jumped from 92 to his new best of 59, thanks to his maiden ATP win in Hungary.

His win over Fognini was the first against a top twenty player in an ATP Tour main draw match.

Mirza Basic defeated Gaël Monfils (7) 6-2 3-6 6-3

Yannick Maden defeated Yuichi Sugita (8) 4-6 7-6(9) 6-2

Maden, from Germany, and ranked 119, saved two match points in the second set tie break, and needed seven set points to take it to a decider

The only successful seed on the day was another German, Philipp Kohlschreiber (6), who defeated Ivo Karlovic 7-5 6-4

Istanbul:

Two seeds were amongst the twelve players who strode onto court on Day Two of the main draw battles.

Jiri Vesely was successful, defeating qualifier Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-3 6-1

Jeremy Chardy eliminated Nikoloz Basilashvili (8) 7-5 6-3

Prague:

Karolina Pliskova denied fans a battle of the siblings with her late withdrawal due to a thigh injury, and her place at the top of the draw was taken by Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who was given a seeding of #9.

It didn’t do her any favours as Kristyna Pliskova promptly dispatched her  7-6(5) 6-3

Other seeds directed to the exit gate were - 

Barbora Strycova (5), eliminated by Camila Giorgi 6-0 2-6 6-2, a sixth straight match loss for the Czech player

Wildcard Daria Kasatkina (3), sent packing by lucky loser in qualifying Jasmine Paolini 7-6(6) 6-3, a thigh injury towards the end of the match not helping Daria.

Fortunately for the Czech crowd, Petra Kvitova (2) won her way into the second round by defeating compatriot and wildcard Tereza Smitkova 6-1 6-3

Shuai Zhang (6) defeated qualifier Stefanie Voegele 6-4 7-5

Mihaela Buzarnescu (7) defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-1 7-5

Rabat:

Although Elise Mertens (1), Aleksandra Krunic (7) and Su-Wei Hsieh (8) survived the first round, the following two weren’t as fortunate -

Dominika Cibulkova (2) was beaten by last weeks Istanbul finalist Polona Hercog 2-6 7-5 6-4

Lucky loser in qualifying Alexandra Dulgheru defeated Timea Babos (4) 2-6 7-6(7) 7-5, saving a match point along the way.