BAPTISTE Crepatte made a tsunami-like effect yesterday in the Bahrain ITF Futures Tennis Tournament 2017 at the Bahrain Tennis Club in Juffair.
The French youngster stunned top seed, defending champion and overwhelming favourite Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the first round.
Meanwhile, Bahrain’s campaign in the tournament ended tamely with all three home contenders losing in straight sets.
Hasan Abdulnabi lost to Germany’s Florian Fallert 6-1, 6-1, Yusuf Qaed went down to Kuwaiti qualifier Abdulla Maqdes 6-2, 6-2, while Abdulrahman Janahi bowed to Qatari wild card M Zayid 6-1, 6-1.
The other seeded players sailed through without much of a problem.
Second seed Michal Konecny of Czech Rebublic ended qualifier Sem Verbeek’s fine run with a 7-6 (1), 6-4 win, while third seed Sanjar Fayziev of Uzbekistan sailed past Filipino Ruben Gonzales 6-3, 6-3.
Fourth seed Filip Horansky of Slovenia beat another Filipino in the main draw Filip Alcantara 6-3, 6-2 and fifth seed Markus Eriksson of Sweden defeated Isa Mammetgulyyev of Turkistan 6-3, 6-0.
Sixth seed Benjamin Lock of Zimbabwe, on the other hand, had to dig deep to beat Cameron Silverman of the US 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Seventh seed Tobais Simon of Germany also had to work extra-time to beat Jorqe Montero 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-1, while eight seed Jonas Merckx of Belgium had no such problems in beating Andrew Ruppli of Switzerland 6-1, 6-1.
Today’s second round matches start at 3pm.
Bahrain’s campaign in the doubles also ended yesterday with Hasan and Kareem Abdulnabi losing to top seeds Ruben Gonzales and Sem Verbeek 6-2, 6-1 in the quarter-finals.
The other Bahrain pair of Janahi and Qaed lost to Kevin and Tlllon Griekspoor 6-1, 6-2.