Third Seed Djere Holds Off Lorenzi In Umag

Third seed Laslo Djere beat 2017 finalist Paolo Lorenzi 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to begin his Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag on Wednesday.

The Serbian is on the hunt for his second clay-court title of the season after triumphing for the first time in his seven-year career in February, when he beat #NextGenATP Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime to win the Rio Open presented by Claro, an ATP 500 event.

Djere trailed 0-2 in the third set, but won five games in a row to take a commanding lead and put himself in position to close. The 37-year-old Lorenzi, who won an ATP Tour title on clay in 2016, did not go away though, getting back on serve when the Serbian served for the match. Djere bounced right back though, breaking the Italian for the fifth time in the match to triumph after two hours and 43 minutes.

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The 24-year-old Djere will next face eighth seed Leonardo Mayer of Argentina. Mayer saved six of eight break points to fight past Czech Jiri Vesely 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Hungarian qualifier Attila Balazs, 30, squeaked past sixth seed Filip Krajinovic 6-3, 6-7(1), 7-6(5) to make his second tour-level quarter-final.

The 30-year-old qualified and reached the Hungarian Open quarter-finals (l. to Herbert) in April. Balazs retired in August 2014 and started coaching tennis, but felt bored and came back to professional tennis.

He will next meet Italian Stefano Travaglia, who advanced 6-1, 2-1 when top seed Fabio Fognini retired from their second-round match.

Did You Know?
In his victory against Lorenzi, Djere saved 16 of the 20 break points he faced, including nine of 10 in the second set, which he lost.

Doubles Results
Leonardo Mayer/Andres Molteni def. Fabricio Neis/Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-4, 6-1
Tomislav Brkic/Ante Pavic def. Hans Podlipnik-Castillo/Tristan-Samuel Weissborn 6-2, 6-2
Denys Molchanov/Igor Zelenay def. Pablo Andujar/Gerard Granollers 6-2, 6-2
Robin Haase/Philipp Oswald def. Andrey Rublev/Andrei Vasilevski 4-6, 7-5, 16-14