Mark Lajal gets St. Tropez tournament off to a winning start

Estonia's top tennis player Mark Lajal started his Challenger 125 campaign in Saint-Tropez with a solid win over Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg in front of a home crowd.
Lajal, 22, now ranked 156th in the world, had just represented Estonia against Mexico in the Davis Cup in Tallinn last Friday, beating Luis Carlos Alvarez (ATP 585th), Mexico's number two, in the singles but losing to Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez (ATP 211), Mexico's highest-ranking player.
Gueymard Wayenburg meanwhile lies 52 places below Lajal in the ATP standings. Lajal is seventh seed at the Saint-Tropez tournament.
In set one, Lajal won the first three games, remaining at least two games ahead of Gueymard Wayenburg at all times and taking the set 6:2.
The second set began exactly the same way: the Estonian won the first three games, not conceding a single point to the French player in the second and third of these games. With things at 5:2, Gueymard Wayenburg was able to win one more game before Lajal converted the first match point presented to him, taking the second set 6:3 and with it the match.
The entire encounter lasted an hour and seven minutes.
Both players hit four aces, though Lajal committed as many as seven double faults, to his opponent's two.
The Estonian's first serve success rate was 89 percent to Gueymard Wayenburg's 70 percent, though Lajal converted 35 percent of his second service points, less than Gueymard Wayenburg's 47 percent.
Lajal converted three of the four break points presented to him and headed off all the break points he faced.
The Estonian will find out who he faces in round two on Wednesday, after Alex Molcan (Slovakia, ATP 203) and Kimmer Coppejans (Belgium, ATP 184) play each other.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Kristjan Kallaste










