The Champion of Sofia Open 2022 – Marc-Andrea Huesler is out of the 2023 tournament.
In the first round, the Swiss, who won twice in the qualification round, lost to another player coming from the qualifications – Billy Harris. The British prodigy stopped Huesler in his try to get his 11th Sofia Open win and 8th in a row after defeating him 6:4, 3:6, 7:6 (5).
Next, Harris will face the third seed Jan-Lennard Struff, from Germany.
One of the local stars – Alexandar Lazarov, couldn’t present himself with a birthday gift (he turned 26 yesterday). The Bulgarian, who received a “wild card”, took the first set but was upset by Pavel Kotov – 6:3, 1:6, 6:2. For Lazarov, this was his first singles match since the beginning of May when he suffered an injury during the Challenger tournament in Austria.
Lazarov led 5:0 after only a quarter of an hour of play. Kotov responded to the challenge and managed to return one of the breaks, but serving for the second time for the set, Lazarov took his serve at 0 and led in the result – 6:3.
The Bulgarian started the second set enormously as well, leading 30:0 on Kotov’s serve. Still, at that moment, the Russian recorded 8 points in a row and, for the first time since the beginning of the match, led in the result – 2:0 game. The key to the outcome of the set was the fifth game, in which Lazarov missed two points to return the break. Subsequently, Kotov levelled the score after 6:1.
In the third set, Kotov broke twice and led 5:1, then closed the match 6:2.
In the round of 16, Kotov will face the fourth-seeded Sebastian Baez (Argentina).
The Turkish “wild card” Cem Ilkel brushed past local favourite Dimitar Kuzmanov 6:0, 6:3 to reach the second round and left the hosting country without more participants in the singles draw. Ilkel’s next opponent will be Max Purcell (Australia).
