Another day, another big test for one of the top seeds at the Serbia Open.

Less than 24 hours after Novak Djokovic was pushed to the brink in Belgrade, second seed Andrey Rublev rallied past #NextGenATP Czech Jiri Lehecka 4-6, 7-6(1), 6-2 after two hours and seven minutes to reach the quarter-finals. He will next play #NextGenATP Dane Holger Rune or Japan’s Taro Daniel.

“It’s a bit tough conditions here to play and it was my first match, plus the guy who I played, he played amazing. He’s a young guy and he played through qualies, through the first round, so he got used to the conditions and he started really well,” Rublev said during his on-court interview. “I was a bit tight and the first match is not easy. But then, with time I started to adapt and I started to play better and better and in the end I finished the match on a good level.”

Rublev faced one break point in each of the second and third sets, but was not in quite the same level of difficulty as Djokovic was on Wednesday against Laslo Djere. The 24-year-old raced out to a quick start in the second-set tie-break and never looked back.

“It’s not easy because everyone is playing at a good level and you can see today I was really close to losing my first match. It’s not easy now because the guys, they improve. They play better and better,” Rublev said. “I hope I’m going to do my best tomorrow, I hope I will show a great matchn and we’ll see what’s going to happen.”

In other second-round matches, sixth seed Fabio Fognini set a quarter-final clash against German Oscar Otte. Fognini defeated Slovenian Aljaz Bedene 6-2, 6-3 and Otte upset fourth seed Aslan Karatsev 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-3.

📧 For all the official news and exclusive interviews, sign up to our newsletters

Did You Know?
Rublev, who has already won hard-court titles this season in Marseille and Dubai, is pursuing his first clay-court trophy since Hamburg in 2020.

Novak Djokovic demonstrated all of his battling qualities to overcome a slow start against fellow Serb Laslo Djere and complete a dramatic second-round comeback at the Serbia Open in Belgrade on Wednesday.

The World No. 1 struggled to find his best level for much of his maiden tour-level meeting with Djere, but the 20-time Grand Slam champion dug deep to clinch a 2-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(4) win and keep his hopes of a third title at the ATP 250 event alive at the Novak Tennis Center.

“I liked the way I managed to physically hold on and push through and survive a thriller of almost three-and-a-half hours,” Djokovic said post-match. “That’s the positive difference compared to Monte Carlo, where I just wasn’t able to physically sustain the third set. Today, that was different. If there are positives, I think that’s the one.”

“Playing an official match in front of your crowd… you feel the great support, which I had, and I’m very grateful for that. But at the same time, it’s not simple. Even after so many years of experience and playing many times in front of the home crowd, you still feel nervous.”

Just like in his loss in Monaco against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Djokovic was slow out the blocks, but this time he found his range in time to stay with his opponent and eventually overhauled Djere in a three-hour, 22-minute marathon.

Djokovic could not match a strong start from the World No. 50 as Djere carved out break point opportunities in all four of the top seed’s service games in the opening set. Converting two of them was enough for Djere to take the set, as he struck the ball powerfully against an opponent struggling to settle in just his fifth match of 2022.

“I think Djere, for most of the match, was the better player,” Djokovic said. “He was the one controlling the game. He was the one attacking. I didn’t feel great again in terms of my game. I had a very bad match with my serve, kind of ups and downs really.”

Djokovic upped his level in the second set and let out a roar after reclaiming a break to level at 4-4 as the crowd began to anticipate a trademark comeback from the legendary 34-year-old. He missed three set points in the 12th game but recovered from that disappointment to clinch the tie-break to force a decider.

Djokovic was never at his imperious best but stayed solid off both wings and took a nervy final set in a tie-break despite stubborn resistance from a tiring Djere, who produced a high-class performance as he came close to the biggest win of his career. The World No. 50 will nonetheless rue a couple of costly misses at crucial moments. He netted a short forehand into an open court when serving at 4-3, 40/15 to let Djokovic back into the second set, and then missed a similar forehand when 4/3 ahead in the third-set tie-break.

FOLLOW THIS WEEK’S ACTION

📺 TV Schedule
🎾 Watch Live On Tennis TV
📱 Follow Live Scores On ATP Tour App
📧 Sign Up For Newsletters

With the win, Djokovic improved his record against Serbian opponents to 26-4. He has not lost to a countryman since defeat to Janko Tipsarevic in Madrid in 2012.

“It was a little bit [of a] strange feeling playing against another Serbian player, which will be the case again tomorrow,” he said. “But I must say the crowd was outstanding.”

Djokovic’s next opponent will be Miomir Kecmanovic, who earlier completed a 6-4, 7-6(5) win over Australian John Millman to reach the quarter-finals for the second year in a row. Djokovic leads the pair’s ATP Head2Head series 1-0 after defeating Kecmanovic in the quarter-finals in Belgrade in 2021.

We strongly condemn Russia’s reprehensible invasion of Ukraine and stand in solidarity with the millions of innocent people affected by the ongoing war.

Our sport is proud to operate on the fundamental principles of merit and fairness, where players compete as individuals to earn their place in tournaments based on the ATP Rankings. We believe that today’s unilateral decision by Wimbledon and the LTA to exclude players from Russia and Belarus from this year’s British grass-court swing is unfair and has the potential to set a damaging precedent for the game. Discrimination based on nationality also constitutes a violation of our agreement with Wimbledon that states that player entry is based solely on ATP Rankings. Any course of action in response to this decision will now be assessed in consultation with our Board and Member councils.

It is important to stress that players from Russia and Belarus will continue to be allowed to compete at ATP events under a neutral flag, a position that has until now been shared across professional tennis. In parallel, we will continue our joint humanitarian support for Ukraine under Tennis Plays for Peace.

Carlos Alcaraz started and finished at his electric best in a successful Spanish homecoming on Wednesday at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell. But in between, South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon showcased his own talent to add some drama on Pisa Rafa Nadal.

Playing in his home nation for the first time since last May, the 18-year-old Alcaraz earned his first career Barcelona victory, 6-1, 2-6, 6-2, to get back on track after an early Monte Carlo exit to start the European clay swing. He improves to 19-3 on the season as he seeks his third ATP tour title of 2022.

“I started playing very well. The match was in my favour,” Alcaraz said of his lightning start which saw him lead, 6-1, 2-0. “It was tough to keep up in the score at the second set. I think he started to play really well, as well. And then I [started] very well at the third.

“It was a close match, I think, even if the score was a little bit easy,” he continued, noting the difficulty of playing in Wednesday’s windy, cold and wet conditions.

Ranked No. 119 entering Barcelona one year ago, Alcaraz came into this week at a career-high of No. 11 in the ATP Rankings. The fifth seed was the main attraction on centre court and enjoyed a rapturous welcome from a packed Spanish crowd.

The always energetic Alcaraz seemed to have an extra spring in his step for his home debut on the 2022 ATP Tour season, bouncing around at the coin toss and carrying that lively attitude into a blistering start. He simply overwhelmed Kwon in the early stages of the match, getting within two points of a 6-0 opening set behind his untouchable ground game. 

Just as it seemed Alcaraz would ease to victory, Kwon came from nowhere to completely change the colour of the match. Incredibly, he won six games in a row to force a deciding set. As the South Korean found his footing, pushing back at Alcaraz for the first time in the rallies, errors began to creep into the Spaniard’s game — most of them forced by Kwon’s aggressive hitting.

But drawing upon the support of the Barcelona crowd, Alcaraz stemmed the tide early in the deciding set. Rediscovering his range on the forehand and finding success with his drop shot, the Spaniard wrestled back control with a pair of early breaks, running out a comfortable winner in the end.

Alcaraz will next face countryman Jaume Munar, a 6-1, 6-4 winner over ninth seed Nikoloz Basilashvili earlier on Wednesday.

Felix Auger-Aliassime dug deep to notch his second clay-court win of 2022 on Wednesday with a hard-fought 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 win over spirited qualifier Carlos Taberner in the second round of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell.

The third seed made a fast start on the clay in Catalunya before holding firm to recover from a second-set lapse and secure a two-hour, 44-minute win at the ATP 500 event.

Auger-Aliassime powered to a career-best 15-4 start to the 2022 season after securing a maiden title in Rotterdam and reaching the final in Marseille in February, but since then had won only one match in four tournaments. This battling victory over Taberner will give the World No. 9 a real confidence boost as he looks to improve on his run to the quarter-finals in Barcelona from last year.

“He [Taberner] is a good clay-court player,” said Auger-Aliassime in his on-court interview. “He had a good win yesterday, I’m sure he was feeling confident.

“On my part, I had a great start to the match. It was unfortunate that I lost my rhythm a little bit in the second set, lost my serve too many times, but I credit him also for defending well, showing a great level for a clay-court player, so it was not easy to get over [the line] today, serving for the match, but eventually to be through, it’s a thrill.”

World No. 94 Taberner appeared overwhelmed by the power of his higher-ranked opponent in the opening set but from then on came somewhere close to the level that took him to a biggest career win over World No. 37 Sebastian Korda in the first round on Tuesday. The qualifier showed real fight in wet and windy conditions at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona-1899, but just fell short in the pair’s first ATP Head2Head meeting.

The opening exchanges served as a stark reminder that Auger-Aliassime’s thunderous forehand can be just as effective on clay as on faster surfaces. Taberner had no answer to the Canadian’s power off that wing and the third seed eased to the first set having dropped just two of 19 points behind his first serve.

Taberner had been impressive in dispatching Korda in the opening round and after a brief rain delay early in the second set the 24-year-old began to settle in his pursuit of a maiden Top 10 win. The stoppage also seemed to disrupt the Auger-Aliassime gameplan, and enough errors came from the third seed’s racquet to give the qualifier the chance he needed as Taberner broke for 5-3 before fending off three break points to hold and clinch the set.

A see-saw final frame saw Auger-Aliassime fail to serve out for the match at 5-3, but the Canadian rediscovered the rhythm on his groundstrokes to clinch a crucial fifth break of the match and reach the third round in Barcelona for the third year in a row.

FOLLOW THIS WEEK’S ACTION

📺 TV Schedule
🎾 Watch Live On Tennis TV
📱 Follow Live Scores On ATP Tour App
📧 Sign Up For Newsletters

Auger-Aliassime will be pleased with his winner count of 30 but will seek a reduction on the 40 unforced errors he made against Taberner in his next outing, and the Canadian was keen to learn from his mid-match struggles for next time.

“I don’t like to have outside excuses for my level,” he said. “I was playing well. There wasn’t really any reason, we didn’t have a long stop. Maybe I should have been a little bit more patient with the balls getting heavy and the conditions being slower in that second set.

“But again, I thought he played well also. It’s fine. There’s tough matches, tough opponents always, so it’s OK to struggle sometimes.”

His third-round opponent will be Frances Tiafoe, after the American kicked off his Barcelona campaign with a 7-6(3), 6-1 victory over Bolivian qualifier Hugo Dellien.

Tiafoe reached a third tour-level quarter-final on clay in Houston two weeks ago and the thirteenth seed was too strong for World No. 89 Dellien on Wednesday. The 13th seed recovered 2-4 to clinch the first set on a tie-break before accelerating through the second to book a first tour-level meeting on the red dirt with Auger-Aliassime.

Eighth seed Pablo Carreno Busta fought past qualifier Bernabe Zapata Miralles, 6-3, 6-3, in an entertaining all-Spanish clash on Pista Rafa Nadal.

The straightforward scoreline disguised what was a tough battle for 2018 and 2021 semi-finalist Carreno Busta, who lost his serve three times against the World No. 119. Carreno Busta also had plenty of joy in his own return games, however, including five consecutive breaks mid-match that quelled his opponent’s spirited resistance. Carreno Busta now faces a third-round clash with 11th seed Lorenzo Sonego.

Also on Wednesday, Marton Fucsovics notched an impressive win against experienced clay-courter Federico Delbonis. Fucsovics had lost the pair’s only previous meeting in straight sets on the red dirt in Geneva in 2019 but it was the Hungarian who dominated in Catalunya, powering to a 6-2, 6-1 win to set a third-round clash with fourth seed Cameron Norrie.

There was also second-round joy for Emil Ruusuvuori, who followed up his 6-0, 6-1 thrashing of Feliciano Lopez on Tuesday with a comfortable 6-3, 6-1 win over 16th seed Alexander Bublik. Ruusuvuori’s red-hot form in Barcelona will be put to a stern test in the third round, however, as he next faces second seed Casper Ruud.