Tennis player Daniil Glinka through to quarterfinals in Germany
Estonian tennis player Daniil Glinka has stormed into the quarterfinals of the M25 ITF tournament in Trimbach, Germany, with a gritty comeback, beating Matthew William Donald (Czech Republic) in straight sets 6:1, 7:6.
Tennisnet.ee reported that: "Glinka's recent form has been strong, having reached the final in Trento last week. Thanks to this performance, he has climbed to 443rd in the rankings," even though, since he reached the semifinals in Trimbach last year, he will not gain additional ranking points from this year's effort.
Glinka is Estonia's second-highest-ranked tennis player and is currently 443rd in the ATP table, 414 places ahead of Donald, who, despite his anglophone-sounding name, is a Czech national.
Glinka was seeded fifth for the tournament and took a 4:0 lead in the first set, making three breaks in total and only conceding one game.
However, the second set told a different story, as he was broken twice and fell behind 2:5. Despite this, he managed to fight back, saving two set points at 3:5 and another at 4:5.
He then overtook to get a 6:5 lead but failed to convert a match point on Donald's serve.
In the resulting tie-break, things were fairly even up until a 5:4 scoreline in favor of Glinka, after which he won two return points to secure the victory.
He will face second-seeded German player Mats Rosenkranz (ATP 336), an eight-time tournament winner, including last year's Challenger 50 title in Mexico, in the quarterfinals.
Elsewhere, Kristjan Tamm survived a thriller in Egypt, and Markus Mölder fell in a hard-fought battle in France.
Estonia's third-ranked player, Tamm, also battled through a hard-fought match in Egypt, coming back from a set down to beat Ukrainian player Georgi Kravchenko (ATP 849) in three sets 6:7, 6:4, 6:4.
Tamm failed to convert a 5:3 lead and four set points in the first set, ultimately losing the tie-break 4:7. However, at the start of the second set, he broke serve again and held onto his advantage.
The same pattern repeated in the third set, where Tamm broke in the first game, had to save one break point, but then held his final three service games confidently.
In France, Mölder faced a tough challenge in the second round of the Poitiers M15 tournament, falling to sixth-seeded Loann Massard (France, ATP 636) 6:7, 3:6.
Top Estonian men's player Mark Lajal has been out action after having minor surgery.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Anders Nõmm
