The stars of Saturday’s exhibition match, Goran Ivanišević and Mansour Bahrami, drew the pairings for the 29th edition of Plava Laguna Croatia Open in Umag but had little luck when it came to the two Croatian trump cards in the main draw.
Consequently, the homegrown tennis players, Franko Škugor and Nino Serdarušić, will face some mighty obstacles already in the first round. The Šibenik native (ranked 349th on the men’s ATP rankings) will play against Alexander Marterer (ATP Rank no. 48), a 23-year-old German currently having the best season of his career (with a win-loss ratio of 15-13), especially after reaching the round of 16 at this year’s Roland Garros.
Umag-born Serdarušić (ATP Rank no. 193) will be looking for his first win in his second appearance (2016) on the home soil in the match against Albert Ramos Vinolas, an experienced Catalonian, who is currently ranked 38th in the world but was ranked 17th only last season.
- He’s from Spain, which means that he is automatically good on clay as well. We will be looking at some of the footage of his previous matches and we will prepare as best we can. Can I win? Why not, surprises are always possible - said Serdarušić, adding that he hoped he would have a loud support from the homebase fans.
For the first time in Umag, the first seed is the British tennis player, Kyle Edmund, who is free in the first round, just like the other top seeds (Džumhur, Cecchinato and Rublev). In the second round, he will face the winner of the match between Lajović and Basilashvili.
Title defender Andrey Rublev will be waiting for the winner of the match between a rather interesting 17-year-old Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime and one of the qualifiers.
The main tournament will kick off on Monday, while on Sunday, we will be able to watch the qualification matches; the only Croatian in the qualifying round is the 17-year-old Admir Kalender, who will be playing against the Brazilian Dutra Silva.
