Radu Albot managed to pull off the upset of the tournament sending the number one seed Denis Shapovalov home and ending his season abruptly beating him handily in straight sets 6-2 and 6-4 in an hour and 14 minutes.
Albot dominating early :
After both players held their opening service games the Canadian had a chance to get an early break but Albot was up to the task of saving it with a big serve. The 93rd ranked player in the world was the next to get break chances at 3-2 when the world number 12 threw in an untimely double fault.
He would break the number one seed serve as the Canadian return went straight into the net for a 4-2 lead. The Nassau, Bahamas resident had a chance to get the break back the very next game but the Moldovan did a good job saving it. He held serve and had two set points the very next game on Shapovalov serve and managed to win the set 6-2 after the Canadian hit another unforced error.
Albot finishes him off :
The world number 93 kept applying the pressure early on in the second set and the Canadian was forced to save three early breakpoints playing some incredible points and using his trademark backhand to mitigate the Moldovan chances.
The rest of the set went on serve until 5-4 when Shapovalov was serving to stay in the match and once again some untimely unforced errors gifted Albot a match point on his serve. Once again the Canadian sent a ball into the net to seal the victory for the world number 93.
Albot will face the winner of the second-round match between Adrian Mannarino and Egor Gerasimov while Shapovalov season is over.
Other Day 3 matches :
There were four other matches on day 3 at the Sofia Open at the Arena Armeec with three first-round matches and one second-round match. Vasek Pospisil had no trouble beating German Jan Lennard Struff 6-3 and 6-4.
" the last few events I've been pretty sharp mentally and I have enough in the tank so I can stay focused every point and that's what I am trying to do and try to go as deep as I can this week".
Pospisil will now face the winner of the second-round match between Gilles Simon and John Millman. In a trio of first-round matches, Jannik Sinner beat Marton Fucsovics 6-2, and 6-4, Gilles Simon lost only four games beating Andrej Martin 6-2, and 6-2, and Richard Gasquet beat Roberto Carballes Baena 6-3 and 6-4 to finish round one.