Daniil Glinka out in round one in New Caledonia
Estonian tennis player Daniil Glinka went out in round one at the ATP Challenger 75 level BNC Tennis Open in Noumea, New Caledonia. He lost to Australian player Bernard Tomic, 6:4, 6:3.
This was Glinka's first competitive match of the season and a stepping stone to Australian Open qualifying starting next week. New Caledonia lies a few thousand kilometers off the east coast of Australia.
The 33-year-old Tomic has in the past ranked in the world's top 20 and has reached the round of 16 at the Australian Open on three occasions. He even made it to the Wimbledon quarterfinals back in 2011. He now ranks 187th, just nine places above Glinka, who rocketed up the ATP rankings last season after a stretch of impressive form.
In a match lasting one hour and 46 minutes, Glinka immediately went down after a break in set one, but leveled the score in the seventh game. However, with things at 5:4 he had his service broken again.
The fourth game in set two proved decisive, as Glinka again lost his serve and was unable to recover from that point onward. He failed to convert as many as a dozen break points, and just the one.
Even the victor's stats were not particularly impressive; Tomic managed to capitalize on just three of the 12 break point opportunities presented to him.
Australian Open qualifying starts on Monday. As well as Glinka, top Estonian player Mark Lajal is in contention, while doubles specialist Ingrid Neel does not even have to go through qualification.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Siim Boikov
