Lacko Pulls Upset In Sofia

In 2017, Lukas Lacko did not win a main draw tour-level match after the Australian Open until the Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open in July. This year, the Slovakian wasted no time, upsetting eighth seed Evgeny Donskoy 6-4, 6-4 at the Diema Xtra Sofia Open on Monday.

Lacko extended his FedEx ATP Head2Head series lead against the Russian to 2-0, with their previous meeting coming at the 2014 Shenzhen Open. The Slovakian broke twice in the match, and did not face break point himself to advance to the second round, where he will face either Moldovan Radu Albot or qualifier Jozef Kovalik.

In the only other main draw match of the day, seventh seed Joao Sousa withstood a tough test from home favourite Dimitar Kuzmanov, the World No. 340, to move on by a 7-6(6), 6-1 margin.

The Bulgarian saved two set points on Sousa’s serve at 4-5 in the opening set before earning three of his own in the ensuing tie-break at 6/3, but the World No. 68 showed his class to overcome the wild card and set up a second-round battle against German Maximilian Marterer or Tunisian Malek Jaziri.

The highest seed in action on Tuesday will be No. 6 Viktor Troicki, who takes on former World No. 10 Ernests Gulbis in the second match of the evening session.

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