Mark Lajal, Daniil Glinka both make Cassis Challenger 75 quarterfinals
Estonia's top two male tennis players have reached the quarterfinals of the Cassis Challenger 75 tournament in France.
Mark Lajal defeated French player Tom Paris in round two, 7:5, 6:4, while Daniil Glinka came from behind to beat Hamish Stewart (U.K.) also in straight sets, 7:6 (5), 6:3.
Both players are currently at career high ATP world rankings: Lajal is currently 147th and Glinka exactly 200 spots below him at 347th. Lajal is also second seed in the tournament.
The Lajal-Paris game was wrapped up in just over an hour and a half. Both sets were close, but Lajal won two consecutive games from 5:5 in the first set to win, doing the same from 4:4 in games in set two.
He converted 77 percent of his first serve points (to Paris' 69 percent) and 48 percent on his second serve (compared with 41 percent for Paris).
Lajal next faces Germany's Justin Engel (ATP 220th), who started the tournament from the qualification round.
As for the Glinka game, the Estonian went 4:1 down against the Briton, the latter ranked 442nd in the world, before clinging on to take the set to a tie break.
Again, he initially trailed, but dug himself out of a hole to seal a 7:6 (5) win. In the second set, both players exchanged game wins, with Glinka ahead until things reached 4:3. Glinka broke Stewart's serve in the next game and held his own to take set and match on the second match point presented to him.
In the quarters in Cassis, near Marseille , Glinka will meet another Brit, Arthur Fery (ATP 235), who surprised fifth seed Titouan Droguet by beating him 6:0, 6:2.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Kristjan Kallaste
