Mark Lajal starts off Canada tournament with a win
Fresh from his stellar showing at the Wimbledon Championships last week, Estonia's top tennis player Mark Lajal has won the opening round of the ATP Challenger 75 tournament in Winnipeg, Canada, overcoming US player Ryan Seggerman in three sets, 6:6, 6:7 (5:7), 6:0.
Lajal, ranked 269th by the ATP, played Seggerman, over 200 places below him in the table, over two days, thanks to rain.
On the second day, the Estonian took just 36 minutes to wrap up the third and decisive set.
Lajal had been a relative unknown until round one of this year's Wimbledon Championships, where he had to come through qualification.
The Estonian found himself drawn against reigning champion and world number three Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, which, far from being a dampener, raised Lajal's profile, partly due to the de rigeur star-studded Wimbledon Center Court audience, but mainly thanks to his resilient performance.
Lajal took Alcaraz to a tie-break in the first set, and only lost the second set 7:5 before going down 6:2 in the decider.
Another Estonian competitor in the Winnipeg tournament, Daniil Glinka (ATP 419th), lost 7:5, 6:3 against Quinn Vandecasteele (US, ATP 588th).
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Siim Boikov
