Umag and Atlanta Thursday notes: Wawrinka wins, Evans upset
Thursday was moving day across the ATP Tour as the 3 events in action this week begin to reach the business end of their respective tournaments. In Umag at the Croatia Open, Stan Wawrinka looked to be back to his old self.
Wawrinka, the 6-seed this week dispatched Federico Coria 7-5, 6-1. The first set was a fairly tight affair, but the 3-time Grand Slam champion came through in the big moments. The second set saw the Swiss star dominate proceedings from the baseline as he was routinely finding the mark with both his forehand and backhand. He looks to be a real threat this week.
Elsewhere in Umag, the No. 1 seed Jiri Lehecka took out the 2020 US Open Champion Dominic Thiem 6-3, 7-5. The Czech player dominated on serve as he won 82 percent of his first serve points and took the majority of the baseline rallies.
Recapping the action from Thursday, including a Wawrinka victory
Wawrinka will face the No. 3 seed Roberto Carballes Baena in the Quarterfinals after the Spaniard brushed aside Taro Daniel 6-3, 6-1.
An all-Italian affair in Croatia saw the 2nd seed Lorenzo Sonego get a nice win over Marco Cecchinato 6-1, 7-6 (7). Sonego is seeking the 4th title of his career this week.
Hopping over to Atlanta, the 3rd seeded Daniel Evans was upset by the German Dominik Koepfer 2-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4. It’s another disappointing result for Evans who went 0-2 during the ATP grass court season.
As for Koepfer, this is the first ATP tour-level win of his career. At 29, the journeyman spiked his ranking with a lot of Challenger success. This will undoubtedly be the highlight of his year already. Evans had multiple match points that he failed to convert and this will be a brutal loss for his psyche.
The final match of the day scheduled in “Hot-Lanta”, saw two Americans square off as Maxime Cressy battled the 8-seed, J.J. Wolf. Wolf got the win 7-6 (7), 6-3.
The first set was a serving clinic as there were no breaks of serve and service games were flying by. The tiebreak had a little more drama, but the 8-seed got it done in the big moments. The more high-end serving came in the second set as well.
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Wolf finally got the break and he would serve it out. Cressy never managed to get a break-point opportunity. Cressy’s struggles continue and it will be hard to see where he goes from here.