Today, three Swedes made it to the second round of the Super category competition Kungens Kanna & Drottningens Pris and are joined by four more compatriots from yesterday.
Two of the victories can be described as surprises, with Tiana Tian Deng responsible for one in the most dramatic matches of the day. The girl from Norrtälje, who represents Salk, met the Romanian Maia Ilinca Burcescu, fifth-seeded in the tournament and one of the tournament favourites. Deng won the first set, the Romanian the second, and then the players fought each other to a tiebreak in the decisive set, where Tiana Tian Deng held her cool, winning the tiebreak 7–3.
The second surprise was Mick Ilnicki from Fair Play TK. He did his wildcard justice by defeating German qualifier Lovis Bertermann 6–4, 6–4. Mick is 1489 in the rankings and the German 188. Well done!
A slightly more expected win was Jesper Ekoff from Upsala Studenters IF. He defeated Croatian Rafael Behr 6–1, 5–7, 6–0.
– We now have seven Swedes through to the second round. In this strong starting field, this result can be considered a positive surprise. It will be exciting to see if some can survive to the round of 16 on Thursday, comments Tournament Director Joe Beaton.
Wednesday’s matches start at 10.00 at The Royal Tennis Club of Stockholm.