Roberto Marcora

Opponents Wilt as Qualifying Continues @CroatiaOpenUmag, Ballboy Caught Texting
Stefano Berlincioni for Tennis Atlantic

Fognini Cincinnati (Photo: Dave Gertler)

Umag, Croatia July 19, 2015–Yesterday evening, I met Fabio Fognini’s father at the elevator and as soon as he saw me told me, “Stefano, it’s too hot here, I’m dying!” Fulvio Fognini is as funny as Fabio and he is right: Umag is really like hell these days. By the way, at the end of the day after the Ivanisevic-Coric exhibition, which was funny and had packed stands, I met Fabio playing darts with a friend of his and later, Bagnis arrived with Gonzalez!

Fabio congratulated Facundo for the Pan-Am Games gold medal and asked who were his opponents and if Argentina paid him for the medal. For the records, Fabio lost the 1^st darts match and was saying “porcodiaz” (his typical expression) every three words, very funny and relaxed.

Today, matches surprisingly started at 11 am, a bit late in my opinion considering the insane heat.

Trinker def. Mitak 61 61

As expected, Trinker disposed very easily of the local wild card, who is no amateur but cannot compete at this level. The Austrian kept the focus for the whole match showing a good form again.

Gerald Melzer in action today: didn’t serve very well but was enough. He also got a warning for racquet abuse #umag pic.twitter.com/ZYn7XTYYkc

— Stefano Berlincioni (@Carretero77) July 19, 2015

Melzer def. Surchenko 61 63

As I said in yesterdays’ report, Surchenko was absolutely not impressive yesterday but today was very pumped and played two times better than yesterday, serving much better and hitting quite hard. Melzer was a bit surprised at the beginning, but after getting broken he cruised until 6-1. He lost focus and went down 0-2 in second set, even getting a bit angry (destroyed a racquet) but managed to regroup and win quote comfortably. Not a stunning performance though.

Marcora def. Trinker 46 44 ret.

This was on paper one of the closest matches of the day. The first set was decided by a double fault of Marcora facing break point on 4-4 and he looked in control of the match, even leading by a break early in the second set. He was more solid from the baseline and very motivated, grunting loudly after every shot. In the middle of the second set, he started showing problems with his wrist/arm and began losing points with blatant errors so he decided to give up at 4-4.

Facundo Bagnis played a solid match today, always in control #umag @facubagnis pic.twitter.com/F3hBcem2mR

— Stefano Berlincioni (@Carretero77) July 19, 2015

Bagnis def. Leonardi 63 63

Leonardi knew that his opponent would have not been so slow on court as Santiago Gonzalez yesterday and the ball speed difference was very clear from the beginning. It has to be said that Leonard played at a very decent level but Bagnis was really too much for him.

Gonzalez def. Leite 62 64

I could not watch many games of this match as I arrived in the middle of second set. Leite looked fresher and after being broken on 62 *32, he made a sign to his wife as if he was going to quit because exhausted. He kept fighting until the end of the set but was quite lucky because he managed to break Leite on 4-4 from 30-0 with the Brazilian missing a winner by one centimeter.

Trevisan def. Skugor 36 61 76

I arrived at the match at 4-1 second set and Skugor fully tanked the service game and especially the return game, not even trying to return. He was not injured though, just saving energy for the third set under Umag’s terrible Sun.

Ballkid had no balls for Trevisan because he was texting on a mobile that the guy behind him brought to him. pic.twitter.com/yprpyOL4HZ

— Stefano Berlincioni (@Carretero77) July 19, 2015

The last set was quite entertaining with great winners from both sides as they are players who don’t like to wait for their opponent’s errors. At 3-3, Trevisan asked for a MTO because he was exhausted due to the heat and he needed more ice on his neck and head. He had a few break chances at 3-3 and he even had to save match points at 4-5. With both players almost down to no legs, the match went to a final tiebreak where Trevisan won 6 points in a row from *0-1 down, playing very aggressive and deserving the win. The Italian almost lost control of his nerves when he was serving to stay in the match because in the middle of the game, the ballkid had no balls for him to serve because he was texting on a mobile phone that a guy from the stands passed to him. A very unusual scene. He stopped texting, gave back the mobile and the guy disappeared from the stands in five seconds. Maybe some very urgent issue but still very strange.

Last little note: I attended Paolo Lorenzi practicing with Andre Sa and it was really amazing to see the intensity of Lorenzi during training.

Another day with insane heat is finished then and tomorrow, thankfully, matches will start at 5 pm.

Qualifying Day 1 Recap at the Inaugural Istanbul Open ATP
Ahmet Fevzi Guclu for Tennis Atlantic

The main draw was determined in addition to qualifying action today (photo credit Ahmet Fevzi Guclu)

Today at the inaugural ATP Istanbul Open, the qualifying tournament was started with 16 matches, on 5 different courts.

The star of the day was 3^rd seed and rising teenager Thanasi Kokkinakis, who was against Turk Barkin Yalcinkale (a 23 year old futures player) on court 1. With around 50 people in the stands, the Australian started the match with the break, and routined his opponent in two sets, Yalcinkale had no break point chances during the entirety of the match. Kokkinakis seemed motivated, and adjusted to clay well, his forehand was decent throughout the match, but he couldn’t find his first serve often.. He will need to improve in his next round clash against Nikola Mektic. [3] Kokkinakis def. Yalcinkale 6-1 6-2

Kokkinakis won easily as expected (photo credit Ahmet Fevzi Guclu)

The Surprise of the day, and only losing seed was seen in court 2, when World No: 154 Thiemo De Bakker, lost against Italian Roberto Marcora (a 25 year old at a career high ranking of 178). Marcora was able to come back from a bagel set in the opener, and won the second set with great backhands, breaking the Dutchman three times. In the final set, De Bakker lost his temper after losing the 6^th game, allowing a break for 2-4. The 8th seed was having a miserable day in Istanbul and threw his rackets to the ground multiple times, mixed in with swearing. Marcora continued his good serving performance and won the match in 1 hour 37 min. He is playing against his countrymen No: 384 Lorenzo Giustino next round. Marcora def. [8] De Bakker 0-6 6-2 6-3

Marcora was the calmer customer on the day (photo credit Ahmet Fevzu Guclu)

Next match in court 2, was between 6^th seeded Australian John Millman and 31 year old Ukrainian Vadim Aleeksenko. While Aleeksenko was doing nothing special, Millman was obviously a bit conservative, and anyone could tell that it was his first clay match in two years. Alekseenko made some easy errors in 3-4 game, and Australian celebrated with a fist pump. He served out the set in following game. It was all Millman in second set, he raised his level while his opponent struggled to get rhythm on his forehand, and as a result Alekseenko failed win a single game. The match was absolute domination but from the occasional skillful shotmaking by the Australian, it was a bad match tennis wise. Evgeny Donskoy from Russia will be his next opponent. [6] Millman def. Alekseenko 6-3 6-0

Millman isn’t comfortable on clay but he still won (photo credit: Ahmet Fevzi Guclu)

#1 seed Blaz Kavcic played the first match in center court, it was a good display from both players, other being Dragos Dima s (22 year old Romanian futures player). Kavcic played with good intensity, and young Romanian went for his shots, his backhand was also a strong weapon on the day. Kavcic won the first set 6-3, but world no: 540 Dima forced his opponent to make errors, and broke him twice and made it to 3^rd set. The final set started even between the two, but Kavcic broke Dima after an amazing passing shot, only to fail to win the following game. Slovenian No: 76 broke again, and was serving for the match at 5-3, but after long rallies 22 year old broke him to 30. After they both won their service games, at the last game of the set, Kavcic played skillful tennis, with great forehands and won the match in his 3^rd match point. Regardless that he got the win, Kavcic was far from decent level today on clay,and will be up against Turkish WC Efe Yurtacan tomorrow on court 1. [1] Kavcic def. Dima 6-3 1-6 7-5

Kavcic and Dima played a high quality contest (photo credit Ahmet Fevzi Guclu)

In other results:
Efe Yurtacan d. Andriej Kapas 3-6 6-1 7-6, Philipp Oswald d. Aleksandre Metreveli 6-1 7-5, Michael Venus d. Dimitar Kuzmanov 6-7 6-4 6-4, Teymuraz Gabashvili d. Aldin Setkic 6-2 6-3, Radu Albot d. Altug Celikbilek 6-3 6-4, Evgeny Donskoy d. Benjamin Ballaret 7-5 6-1, Michael Linzer d. Petru-Alexandru Luncanu 7-6 6-3, Marton Fuscovics beat Tuna Altuna 6-0 6-3, Nikola Mektic d. Jurgen Zopp 6-4 6-0, Alexandr Nedovyesov d. Mate Pavic 6-1 6-2, and Fedor Chervyakov d. Sarp Agabigun 6-7 7-5 6-0.