Sixth seed Bernard Tomic won nearly 75 per cent of his service points to secure his fourth victory of the season on Monday, beating lucky loser Mohamed Safwat of Egypt 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 in just under two hours at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open.

Tomic improved to 2-1 on clay this year and will face Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Silva, who needed more than two hours to defeat Italian qualifier Riccardo Bellotti 3-6, 7-6(1), 6-0.

Czech Jiri Vesely earned his first victory against Spaniard Marcel Granollers 7-5, 2-6, 6-4. Granollers had led their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-0. Vesely will next face eighth seed Steve Darcis of Belgium, who dismissed Israeli Dudi Sela 7-5, 6-4.

Russian Mikhail Youzhny also moved into the second round in Turkey, fending off Turkish wild card Cem Ilkel 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Tommy Robredo celebrated his 35^th birthday with an opening win and an on-court cake presentation on Monday at the Millennium Estoril Open. The Spaniard won 84 per cent of his first-serve points to get past Russian Evgeny Donskoy, the only man to beat Roger Federer this season, 6-3, 6-2. Robredo will next face top seed and countryman Pablo Carreno Busta.

South African Kevin Anderson won his third clay-court match of the season, beating Italian qualifier Salvatore Caruso 6-2, 6-3 in 74 minutes.

Two home hopefuls also advanced on day one in Estoril. Gastao Elias outlasted Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in two hours and 16 minutes. Portuguese wild card Frederico Ferreira Silva advanced past Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 6-2, 6-2 and will next play fourth seed David Ferrer.

It might sound off at first, but Juan Martin del Potro is feeling at home this week as he returns to Portugal for an ATP World Tour event for the fourth time. Del Potro, who hails from Tandil, Argentina, said Estoril, the host site of this week’s Millennium Estoril Open, reminds him of his hometown in eastern Argentina.

“I feel like I’m at home,” del Potro said. “I’m enjoying being in Portugal a lot.”

The 28-year-old del Potro has certainly played like a man comfortable in his environment during his three trips to Portugal. Del Potro has gone 10-1, a stretch that includes two titles (2011, 2012). He has won nine consecutive matches and 17 straight sets in the European coastal country.

“Estoril has been a great place for me. I have great memories from this tournament. It’s something different for me, it’s now in a different stadium. But it’s still great for all the players, and I’m so happy to be back,” said del Potro, who last played in Portugal in 2012. “Every time when I start in Portugal, then I have a great season on clay. That means something good to me and something I’ll try to repeat.”

In 2012, after winning his second Estoril title, del Potro reached the semi-finals in Madrid, the round of 16 in Rome and the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.

This year’s Estoril tournament will mark del Potro’s fifth tournament of 2017 and his season debut on clay. The 6’6” right-hander has gone 6-4 this season, and Estoril will be his first tournament since the Miami Open presented by Itau in March, when he lost to eventual champion Roger Federer in the third round.

All four of del Potro’s losses this season have come against Top 6 opponents. The fifth-seeded del Potro opens against Japan’s Yuichi Sugita on Tuesday.

“I’m feeling good. I’m feeling ready to start the clay season and hopefully I can enjoy good results,” he said. “I have a lot of fans here and the people with me are very nice, and I’m so happy to show my tennis to them.”

Tommy Haas began his Munich swan song with his 21^st victory in the Germany city, beating Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Monday at the BMW Open by FWU. The 39-year-old Haas, who’s playing in the Munich tournament for the 12^th and final time, didn’t face a break point in the final two sets and dropped only one point on serve (20/21) in the decider.

“I’m very excited to be back here after many years, on my last run in Munich,” said Haas, who last played in Munich in 2014. “It was a tough start for me. I think Sergiy played extremely well in the beginning, mixing it up and really letting me guess most of the time what’s going to happen. It took me a while to find my game, and I was happy to turn it around.”

The 2013 Munich champion will meet seventh seed and countryman Jan-Lennard Struff in the second round. Struff dismissed German wild card Daniel Masur 6-3, 6-4. Ten Germans entered the main draw of the ATP World Tour 250 tournament.

Eighth seed Thomaz Bellucci, a finalist in Houston last month, saved all three break points to beat Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-2 in 77 minutes. The Brazilian will next play German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann, who, playing in his first tour-level match, beat Austrian Gerald Melzer 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.

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A career breakthrough vaulted Croatian Borna Coric up the Emirates ATP Race To Milan standings in April, and now the 20-year-old right-hander is close to challenging #NextGenATP star Alexander Zverev for the lead in the race to qualify for the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held 7-11 November in Milan.

On 3 April, Coric was in eighth place in the Race, 380 points behind Zverev. But a week later, the Zagreb native compiled the best week of his career at the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech.

Coric won five consecutive matches in Morocco to celebrate his first ATP World Tour title, saving five match points in the final to beat German Philipp Kohlschreiber 5-7, 7-6(3), 7-5 in two hours and 38 minutes. Along the way, Coric prevailed past two other Top 40 players, including then-World No. 24 Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain and Argentine Diego Schwartzman, who reached a new career high of No. 34 in the Emirates ATP Rankings last month.

Coric became the third player from the current #NextGenATP contingent to lift an ATP World Tour trophy, joining Zverev (St. Petersburg 2016 & Montpellier 2017) and Russian Karen Khachanov (Chengdu 2016).

“It’s an awesome feeling. I didn’t know what to expect when I came here, and I wasn’t in the best shape. But I’ve been working very hard the past three or four months, and now it’s paying off,” Coric told ATPWorldTour.com. “I was focused in all the matches and didn’t lose my calm. I just played very well and served very well and that made it much easier for me.”

The next week, Coric struggled at the season’s first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament on clay, the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, falling to French veteran Jeremy Chardy in three sets. Last week, at the inaugural Gazprom Hungarian Open in Budapest, Coric also dropped his opener, losing to Czech left-hander Jiri Vesely.

But Coric is now in second place in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan. He has 435 points, 265 points behind Race leader Zverev, who has 700 points.

Coric said qualifying for the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan remains one of his top goals for the season. “For sure it is,” he said. “I’m not sure if it will happen or not, but that’s a goal for sure. I need to continue to work hard.”

Read More: #NextGenATP Race Leader Zverev Has Massive March

LOOK BACK

2017 Kunming Challenger (Anning, China): Janko Tipsarevic remains unbeaten on the ATP Challenger Tour in 2017, following another stellar week in Asia.

The former World No. 8 in the Emirates ATP Rankings has won all 20 matches at this level, clinching his fourth Challenger title of the season with a 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4 triumph over #NextGenATP prospect Quentin Halys.

The Serbian has dropped just two sets during this 20-match streak, including two titles in Bangkok and last week’s trophy in Qingdao. The win streak is the longest run on the ATP Challenger Tour since David Goffin also won 20 in a row in 2014.

Victory over the Frenchman boosted his ranking nine places to World No. 62 and also secured a 15th Challenger trophy, having now won 10 straight finals since 2006.

Tallahassee Tennis Challenger (Florida, U.S.A): Qualifier Blaz Rola built up momentum with eight wins in eight days to lift the title in Tallahassee.

In the longest final on the ATP Challenger Tour so far this season, at two hours and 37 minutes, the Slovenian prevailed past Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-2, 6-7(6), 7-5.

His third ATP Challenger Tour title, a first since Santos, Brazil, two years ago, helps him climb from No. 271 back into the Top 200 at No. 198.

Internazionali di Tennis D’Abruzzo (Francavilla, Italy): Pedro Sousa picked up a maiden ATP Challenger Tour title with a 6-3, 7-6(3) win over second seed Alessandro Giannessi.

The 28 year old is the sixth first-time champion in 2017 and as a reward, moves up 47 places to World No. 172. Sousa is also the first Portuguese winner since Gastao Elias in Mestre, Italy, in May 2016.

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Janko Tipsarevic: “It feels very good, I honestly wasn’t expecting to win these tournaments. I knew I could play well, but to win two big ATP Challenger Tour events in a row is really, really good.

“I think it was a high-quality match from both sides,” said Tipsarevic, referring to the final against Halys. “I was just able to take my small chances.

“I feel very tired, my body has been destroyed after these two weeks. The expectations, thinking that you can and should win these matches, is very draining, especially against these difficult opponents.

“I use a hashtag ‘keep digging’ on social media. It’s a metaphor for hard work and without that, there is no other way.”

Blaz Rola: “I don’t know how I did it, it’s not like I had any easy matches. I guess the hard work is paying off. I ended last year on a bad note with injuries, so I had plenty of time to prepare physically, mentally and technically.

“This will definitely help for the rest of the clay season. I don’t want to celebrate too much, maybe a day off before preparing for Savannah. This should give me a lot of confidence for playing on clay in Europe.”

A LOOK AHEAD

The $75,000 Challenger in Savannah, Georgia, U.S.A, leads a triple billing this week. Darian King is top seed of a strong field on the green clay, with Tallahassee champion Rola and finalist Ramanathan set to play, while Stefan Kozlov and Denis Shapovalov spearhead the #NextGenATP contingent.

Onto the red clay at the €64,000 Challenger in Ostrava, Czech Republic, and World No. 103 Norbert Gombos leads the pack with 2010 champion Lukas Rosol in the draw.

The hard courts at the $50,000 Challenger in Gimcheon, South Korea, welcome 2017 Santaizi Challenger champion Yen-Hsun Lu as the top seed. #NextGenATP player Duckhee Lee will also contend for the title in front of a home crowd.

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