Italy’s Stefano Travaglia pulled off an upset Monday as the Plava Laguna Croatia Open began in Umag, beating sixth-seeded Jaume Munar of Spain 6-3, 7-6 (1).
Travaglia won 73 percent of his first-serve points and converted four of his seven break-point opportunities. Munar won just 58 percent on his first serve and went 2-for-7 on break-point chances.
In other first-round matches, Radu Albot of Moldova rallied past Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune of Denmark 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 thanks to a strong performance on return points (43/95). Spain’s Carlos Taberner dumped Croatia’s Nino Serdarusic 6-2, 6-2.
The event’s top four seeds, No. 1 Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain, No. 2 Dusan Lajovic of Serbia, No. 3 Filip Krajinovic and No. 4 Richard Gasquet of France, received first-round byes.
Swiss Open Gstaad
Sixth-seed Benoit Paire of France was among the first-round winners in Gstaad, Switzerland, topping Slovakia’s Jozef Kovalik 6-3, 7-6 (2). Paire was a perfect 8-for-8 in saving break points.
Spain’s Feliciano Lopez, the No. 8 seed, held a 6-4, 4-6, 6-5 lead on Switzerland’s Marc-Andrea Huesler before Huesler retired.
Other opening-round winners were Australia’s Marc Polmans, the Czech Republic’s Vit Kopriva, Belgium’s Zizou Bergs and Sweden’s Mikael Ymer.
Top-seeded Denis Shapovalov of Canada, second-seeded Roberto Baustista Agut of Spain, third-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway and fourth-seeded Cristian Garin on Chile had first-round byes.
Mifel Open
Sixth-seeded Steve Johnson of the United States pulled away for a 7-6 (4), 6-2 win over Mexican wild-card entrant Gerardo Lopez Villasenor in the first round at Los Cabos, Mexico.
Johnson, who lost his serve just once, fired 15 aces to seven for Villasenor.
Australia’s Alex Bolt recovered from a slow start to top seventh-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy 0-6, 6-2, 6-3. Also registering first-round wins were Austria’s Sebastian Ofner, Russia’s Evgeny Donskoy and two U.S. players, Brandon Nakashima and Denis Kudla.
–Field Level Media
