The first round of the stronger-than-ever ATP tournament in Zagreb, Croatia, is over.
It brought us some surprises, some near surprises and, most important of all, plenty of great tennis matches.
The biggest surprise was definetly a match between second-seed home player Ivo Karlovic, 21st on the ATP rangliste, and 22-year-old Ukranian player Sergiy Stakhovsky.
It was a tough match in which the 209th player of the world, Stakhovsky, showed he is no easy draw for Karlovic. After Karlovic won the first set 6-4, Stakhovsky seemed to finally eliminate the fear of the tallest player on tour and won the second set in tie break 7-6.
That was about all Karlovic could show to his home audience witch certainly expected more from a player who was born and raised in Zagreb, especially after Karlovic's last week performance in Rotterdam where he reached the semi-finals.
Stakhovsky won the third set easily 6-2.
Another surprise included an experienced French Marc Gicquel, currently 52nd player in the world, and Croatian player Lovro Zovko.
It was a match in which Gicquel never really got going and 509th player of the world, Zovko, won swiftly with 6-3, 7-5.
Other surprises include 7th seeded Andreas Seppi losing to South African Rik de Voest in a match where de Voest showed outstanding ability to overcome fear and win a match in which he was a total outsider.
One of the more shocking matches would be between Austrian veteran Stefan Koubek and Croatian rising star Franko Skugor, if only Skugor was able to turn one of his two match-points.
Skugor won the first set easily 6-2 in his ATP debut.
In the second set, Koubek started to play better, but it was almost of no use to him when Skugor was leading 4-2 and was serving.
However, the inexpirienced Croatian wasn't able to keep the lead and Koubek tied the result.
At 5-4 to Skugor, on Koubek's serve, Skugor had a big chance to do the impossible.
He had a 15-40 lead and a good chance to win.
The fear got to him then, as he admited after the match, and the match went to the tiebreak in witch Koubek tied the result to 1-1.
The third set was only a formality in which Koubek won 6-0.
Other matches brought no big surprises, only great matches. Unfortunatly in front of a small audience.
The most interesting match was between a home player Mario Ancic and a French player Nicolas Mahut. Ancic won the match in two tiebreaks after a long and hard battle between two great and promising players.
Other results include:
(1)Ivan Ljubicic (CRO) - Ernests Gulbis (LAT) 6-3, 7-6
Teimuraz Gabashvili (RUS) - Florian Mayer (GER) 7-6, 6-0
(3)Gilles Simon (FRA) - Pavol Cervenak (SVK) 7-6, 6-0
Michael Berrer (GER) - Robin Haase (NED) 4-6, 3-6
Denis Gremelmayr (GER) - Sebastien De Chaunac (FRA) 6-7, 6-1, 6-4
(5)Marin Cilic - Guillermo Garci-Lopez (SPA) 6-2, 6-2
Rainer Schuettler (GER) - Simone Bolelli (ITA) 3-6, 2-6
Olivier Rochus (BEL) - (4)Fabrice Santoro (FRA) 6-3, 2-0 Sanotoro Ret'd
(8)Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) - Mischa Zverev (GER) 6-3, 6-1
Roko Karanusic (CRO) - Blaz Kavcic (SLO) 6-7, 6-4, 6-4
Viktor Troicki (SER) - George Bastl (SUI) 6-3, 7-6.
The level of tennis witch was shown in the first round guarantees a great week here in the Croatian capital.
We will just wait and see what the second round bring us, and when we do, make sure to check further reports.
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