Mark Lajal wins arduous Bergamo ATP tournament round one match
Top Estonian tennis player Mark Lajal is through to round two of the Internazionali di Bergamo in Italy, after a hard-fought three-set victory against Aleksei Vatutin (neutral flag), winning 5:7, 7:5, 6:3.
Also known as the Trofeo Faip-Perrel, the competition is an ATP Challenger 100-level event.
The pair had already meet last month in the first round of the Brest Challenger, where Lajal likewise earned a grueling three-set win.
Vatutin, ranked 383rd in the world, had reached the main draw in Bergamo as the so-called luckly loser. He launched a comeback from being 5:2 down in set one against Lajal, going on to win the set after Lajal lost five games in a row.
The Estonian, ranked 146th worldwide, held on in set two to win by the same scoreline as he had lost the first set, and won the decider more convincingly, 6:3. The entire encounter lasted two-and-a-half hours.
Oin that time, Lajal served 11 aces and hit seven double faults, while Vatutin posted seven of each. Lajal converted three of the 11 break points presented to him; Vatutin's rate was more efficient: Of only three break points throughout the match, he managed to convert two of them.
Lajal next faces 18-year-old German Justin Engel (ATP 195) in tround two in Bergamo. Engel overcame Britain's Hamish Stewart (ATP 340) after the latter pulled out after only three games.
Daniil Glinka's recent run of success, which saw him punted into the top 200 worldwide and a berth in qualifying at next January's Australian Open, meant that he opted not to play in Bergamo.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Maarja Värv
