Madrid (Spain) – Croatian Borna Coric almost missed out on the Masters 1000 in Madrid on his debut. This Wednesday, he faced the German qualifier Benjamin Hassan, who won the first set and worked hard in the next two, but was unable to avoid the former top 15’s comeback and ended up overcoming with the final score of 6/ 7 (5-7), 7/5 and 6/3.
After going through a tough time in the first round, Coric will have an even bigger challenge in the next match, in which he will face German Alexander Zverev, seeded number 4, who is advanced in the dispute. It will be the first clash between them on clay and the seventh in total, with three victories for each side.
Seventh favorite on the Madrid clay court, Russian Andrey Rublev was yet another who met his debut opponent. He will open the campaign against Argentine Facundo Bagnis, who triumphed in the duel of tennis players from the quali against North American Brandon Nakashima by scoring partials of 6/3 and 7/6 (7-5).
Another one who entered the main draw through qualifying, Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis couldn’t go any further and stopped on his debut, beaten by Britain’s Jack Draper in three sets, with the final score of 6/3, 3/6 and 7/5. In the second round, he will challenge the Polish Hubert Hurkacz, eighth highest ranked for the title, who enters the group early.
Rune and Argentines also know rivals
Owner of two titles on clay this season, Argentine Sebastian Baez was one of the top seeds to meet his first opponent in the tournament. The 18th seed will debut against Frenchman Luca Van Assche, who had trouble against Belgian guest Zizou Bergs, needing three sets to record victory with partials of 6/4, 6/7 (0-7) and 6/ 1.
Also Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo, 21st favorite and another who enters directly into the second round, will debut at Caixa Mágica against Hungarian Fabian Marozsan, who got the better of a duel of two tiebreaks against Russian Aslan Karatsev, closing the match with the final score of 7/6 (7-2) and 7/6 (7-2).
In turn, Mariano Navone, runner-up in the Rio Open and Bucharest this season, beat Australian Alexei Popyrin in straight sets, scoring 7/5 and 6/4. The Argentine number 41 in the world will challenge the Danish Holger Rune, 11th pre-registered for the tournament, in the second round.
