Ramos struggles through in Umag

"Landep News"

Ramos struggles through in Umag

Albert Ramos has made a big progress at the Croatian event when the world number 82 ousted local favorite and eighth seeded Ivan Dodig, winner of this term’s Zagreb Indoors, in three sets, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 and two hours and a half.

The Spaniard converted five of his 13 break point chances to stun the Croatian with a 62 service point percentage, including a 44 return one and four break point saves, compared to Dodig who finished the game with six double faults, a 52 first serve percentage and a 38 return one. The crowd favorite conceded the first set after allowing his opponent to break him twice, but leveled the situation in the second term when he only broke once and saved two other opportunities from the Spaniard.

Finally, the decider was dominated by the same unseed who picked three more breaks to power through to a four-game lead. Next up for the Spaniard is either Mate Delic or a qualifier. The same day Argentina’s Diego Junqueira beat Antonio Veic 6-4, 7-5 after breaking the Croatian six times out of six chances. The local favorite committed seven double faults and had a poor 44 first serve percentage which cost him both sets, despite breaking his opponent four times.

Junqueria will next meet the winner between Dusan Lajovic and Andreas Seppi. In the qualifiers, Gianluca Naso beat Dino Marcan 6-4, 7-5, Ramirez Hidalgo upset Aljaz Bedene and Simone Vagnozzi ousted Thomas Fabbiano 7-5, 6-0. Top seed Juan Ignacio Chela is favored by a BYE currently and could face Potito Starace of Italy in the second term, the Italian being expected to face Thiemo de Bakker in the opener.

On the same first half of the table, Sergiy Stakhovsky, who follows a poor week in Hamburg, makes his Croatian debut against Olivier Rochues of Belgium, while Fabio Fognini plays Rui Machado of Portugal. One of the main seeds, Marin Cilic hasn’t found the name of his next opponent yet, but if he wins the opener, he will meet either Simone Vagnozzi or Robin Haase of Holland in the second term.

As for the second half of the draw, second seed Alexandr Dolgopolov is currently favored by a BYE, the same as another local favorite Ivan Ljubicic. Filippo Volandri will meet Mate Pavic in the first round, while Juan Carlos Ferrero, winner of the Stuttgart event and former world number one, makes his debut against Argentina’s Maximo Gonzalez.

Finally, Carlos Berlocq is to face Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia, while Rommey Robredo is to have some hard times against Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo.

Umag Prize Money and points:

Winner – 72,600 euro and 250 points ATP

Runner-up – 38,200 euro and 150 points ATP

Semi finalist – 20,700 euro and 90 points ATP

Quarter finalist – 11,800 euro and 45 points ATP

R16 – 6,940 euro and 20 points ATP

R32 – 4,120 euro and zero points

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