Cecchinato Wins Battle Of Former Semi-finalists At Roland Garros
In a meeting of former Roland Garros semi-finalists, Marco Cecchinato booked his place in the second qualifying round with a 6-3, 7-5 victory against Ernests Gulbis on Tuesday.
The fifth seed struck 20 winners to move past 2014 semi-finalist Gulbis in one hour and 43 minutes. Just two years ago, Cecchinato beat Pablo Carreno Busta and David Goffin in back-to-back matches to book a quarter-final meeting against Novak Djokovic at the clay-court Grand Slam championship. Appearing in his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final, the Italian stunned Djokovic in a three-hour, 26-minute battle to reach the semi-finals in Paris.
Cecchinato will next face Constant Lestienne of France. The 28-year-old raced through his opening match in 61 minutes, beating Andrew Harris 6-1, 6-1.
South Korea’s Hyeon Chung rallied from a 1/4 deficit in a first-set tie-break to defeat wild card Baptiste Crepatte 7-6(7), 6-4. The 2017 Next Gen ATP Finals champion will face Renzo Olivo of Argentina for a place in the final qualifying round. Olivo won 12 of 15 net points to eliminate 20th seed Federico Gaio 6-4, 6-4.
Eighth seed Taro Daniel also advanced on Tuesday with a 6-4, 6-4 win against Mathias Bourgue. The Japanese will face Andrey Kuznetsov, who overcame Blaz Kavcic 4-6, 7-6(8), 6-3, in his next match.
Frederico Ferreira Silva charged past Viktor Troicki 6-0, 6-2 on Court 11. The 25-year-old Portuguese broke serve on six occasions to book a meeting with Joao Menezes. The Brazilian moved past Mohamed Safwat 7-6(2), 6-1.
Leonardo Mayer landed 29 winners to defeat Peter Polansky 7-5, 6-0. The Argentine, a two-time winner at the Hamburg European Open, will play Carlos Taberner of Spain in his next match. Taberner, who won his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title in Iasi last week, beat Stefano Napolitano 6-4, 7-5.