Duje arrived at victory by beating Argentinian Andrea Collarini with the result 6:3, 6:2. Although a debutant, the 20-year-old from Split showed the maturity and security inherent in more experienced players in the match and showed why he is the hope of Croatian tennis.
“First ATP win, especially in my own country, is a very nice feeling. I was greatly motivated to play at the Goran Ivanišević Stadium, but also because he was in the audience. The match started badly, but when I got the break point things started to work out. This is an important victory, but I have already beaten players of Collarini’s rank, so I can't say that this victory gave me some special self-confidence,” said Duje after the match.
The youngest player in the Top 100 ATP rankings (73) and one of the upcoming stars of world tennis, 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, started the Umag tournament with a great victory over Lucas Pouille. The young Spaniard defeated the former Top 10 player of the world and the semifinalist of the Australian Open in 2019 after a little more than two hours of play, turning the match around after losing the first set. At one point, Alcaraz had a series of nine games in a row (from 2: 2 in the second, to 5: 0 in the third set), in other words, he won ten of the last 12 games for the final 3:6, 6:2, 6:2.
The winner of the Plava Laguna Croatia Open in 2018, the Italian Marco Cecchinato (ATP 82), eliminated the fifth qualifier, Slovenian tennis player Aljaž Bedene (ATP 58) with 6:1, 6:4. The winner of the 2014 Umag tournament, Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas (ATP 94), got stuck on another Spaniard, Bernabeu Zapati Miralles (ATP 121), who celebrated with 4:6, 6:2, 6:4. A successful day for Italian tennis in Umag was concluded by the eighth qualifier Gianluca Mager (ATP 75), with a victory over the Spaniard Pedro Martinez (ATP 97) with 0:6, 6:3, 6:3. Victors were Damir Džumhur, Daniel Altmaier and Alessandro Giannessi, and in doubles Italians Cecchinato/Travaglia and Czechs Jebavy/Vesely.
After the tennis excitement, the Umag audience relaxed with the group Febra, which performed as part of the Open Air Music program until 2 am.
