TENNIS – Romanian wildcard Vladislav Melnic upset Italian ninth seed Alexandr Binda in three sets yesterday to advance to the men’s singles round of 16 in the Manama Challenger, which got underway at the Public Security Officers Club in Gudaibiya.
The category 50 competition, part of this year’s ATP Challenger Tour calendar, features top professionals from around the world who are vying for a share of the $60,000 in total prize money.
Melnic battled Binda for more than two-and-a-half hours to win 6-4, 2-6, 7-5. It was one of three matches yesterday in the opening phase.
Melnic will next take on the winner of the round-of-32 clash between Irish wild card Cian Maguire and Spanish qualifier Ivan Marrero Curbelo.
Also advancing yesterday to the last 16 were eighth seed Sergey Fomin from Uzbekistan and Mirza Basic from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Fomin also had a tough three-setter against Dali Blanch from the US against whom he battled back from a set down to win 6-7 (2), 7-6 (1), 6-3, while Basic beat Egor Agafonov from Russia 6-4, 6-1 to march through.
Fomin will next face off with the winner of the match between qualifiers Maximilian Homberg from Germany and Aziz Ouakaa from Tunisia, while Basic will play either German alternate Nino Ehrenschneider or French fourth-seed Mathys Erhard.
Another 11 round-of-32 matches are scheduled to be held today at the same venue, starting from 10am.
Second seed Ilia Simakin and third seed Petr Bar Biryukov, both from Russia, are amongst those in action.
&uuid=(email))