Cecchinato Upsets Simon In Umag

Marco Cecchinato recorded the first upset of the Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag, defeating fifth seed Gilles Simon in the opening round 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 on Monday.

“I’m very happy for this match because it was against one of the best players in the tournament,” said Cecchinato. “My forehand was good and I was very focused, which you have to be against Gilles.”

Cecchinato accumulated 11 break points throughout the match, converting on six to advance in one hour and 38 minutes. The 24 year old picked up his first ATP World Tour main draw win since reaching the Budapest quarter-finals in April 2016.

The Italian will next play wild card Ivan Dodig, who delighted the home crowd by defeating Marius Copil 6-4, 7-6(4). Dodig is currently No. 412 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, but moved back into the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings this year due to the success of his partnership with Marcel Granollers.

“It’s great to be in Croatia again and to win my first singles match in a long time,” said Dodig. “It’s always a good crowd here and I always have a great time.”

Attila Balazs, Marco Trungelliti, Miljan Zekic and Kenny De Schepper all won their final-round qualifying matches on Monday.

Nestor Closes In On Milestone Win

Daniel Nestor moved within one victory of his 1050th match win, as he teamed up with Max Mirnyi to clinch their first-round match Monday. The top seeds finished strongly to defeat Aliaksandr Bury and Damir Dzumhur 7-6(2), 6-0 in 68 minutes. Nestor, 44, holds the record for most doubles match wins – currently nine more than Mike Bryan’s 1040.