ATP Sofia: Day Two Recap

The ATP tournament in Sofia reached day two, with two seeds playing their first round matches. The doubles event also commenced, with the top seeds bringing day two to a close.

Fifth-seed Philipp Kohlschreiber cruises into round two

The second match on the Centre Court appeared to be the match of the day, but fifth-seed Philipp Kohlschreiber had other ideas, defeating Sergiy Stakhovsky with the loss of only 4 games.

The German stormed into an early 3-0 lead, breaking his opponent’s serve twice in the process. Then followed four consecutive breaks of serve with both players struggling to get control on their delivery, allowing Kohlschreiber to take the first 6-2. He continued his domination into the second set breaking immediately, before breaking again to serve out the 6-2, 6-2 win.

The fifth-seed’s domination was evident throughout all statistics, creating 12 break point opportunities. Stakhovsky’s game is built around his powerful serve, but he was unable to inflict any damage, winning only 42% on his first delivery and performing narrowly worse on his second, winning only 36%.

Dzumhur defeats Vesely in three sets

Damir Dzumhur during his win - Source: SofiaOpen.bg

Damir Dzumhur recovered from a break down in the opening two sets to beat Jiri Vesely in one of the only singles match to go the distance.

After early breaks of serve from both, Dzumhur took control and earnt another break at 4-3 to serve it out, winning the opener 6-3. He upped his serve percentage to 75% in the second, only to fail to capitalise on two break points and lose the set 3-6. The decider was a tighter affair with only two break points being created between either player. It was the lower-ranked Bosnian who took his chance, eventually saving a break point when serving the match out to take a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory.

Elsewhere

There was less excitement in the other singles matches from Day Two, with no tie-breakers and only one decisive third set. It was Marius Copil who got things going, defeating up-and-coming Korean youngster Hyeon Chung, who was disappointing in failing to create any break chances.

Gilles Muller celebrates his win - Source: SofiaOpen.bg

Big-serving Gilles Muller dealt-out 16 aces to destroy Malek Jaziri in a virtuoso serving display. The man from Luxembourg won an astonishing 100% of his first serve deliveries to not allow Jaziri any glimmer of hope. Elsewhere, Thiemo De Bakker defeated Matthew Ebden, and Filip Krajinovic saw off Marsel Ilhan in the final singles match of the day in the only other match to go the distance.

The doubles event also got off to slow start, with only one of the four matches going the distance. Top seeds Philipp Petzschner and Alexander Peya knocked out Frederik Nielsen and Gilles Muller, whom was playing his second game of the day.

Day Three Preview

The third day’s schedule in Sofia is slightly quieter than today’s events, but still features third-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Adrian Mannarino also starts his campaign in the Bulgarian capital, along with Martin Klizan continuing his bid. Qualifiers Daniel Brands and Thomas Fabbiano clash in the only singles match on Court One, as well local-boy Dimitar Kuzmanov taking on Ricardas Berankis.

The doubles event starts to pick-up, with three of the top four seeds in action.