Dutch Botic van de Zandschulp (no. 65 ATP) halted the progress of Roberto Bautista from Castellón in the first round of the Basel (Switzerland) tournament, played on an indoor hard court.
Van de Zandschulp, from the qualifying phase, needed three hours and six minutes to defeat the world number 48 in three hard-fought sets 7-5, 6-7 (3) and 6-2.
After a disastrous first set for the 35-year-old Spaniard, who failed to hold his serve on three occasions, he started the second with another serve, leading the tie-break, marked by a surprising lack of Dutch control.
In the decisive match, Bautista could not handle the pressure and surrendered the victory to his rival in just 30 minutes.
In the next round, Botic van de Zandschulp will face the winner of the duel between the ‘host’ Leandro Riedi and the sixth seed, the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime.
For his part, Catalan Albert Ramos (no. 93 ATP) was eliminated on Monday from the Vienna tournament, played on a hard surface indoors, 6-7 (4) and 6-7 (2) against Italian Matteo. Arnaldi, only 22 years old.
Ramos, without an individual title this season, lost to the motivated Arnaldi after two intense hours of play.
The Barcelonan repeated the same mistakes in the same set, after experiencing total parity, with one break of serve on each side. His rival sealed the win after the 35-year-old failed to protect his serve on multiple occasions in the tie-break.
The Murcia Challenger champion will face the winner of the match between Australian Alexei Popyrin (n.39) and third favorite, Russian Andrey Rublev, in the round of 16.
Source: La Verdad
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