As usual, top-class tennis was offered on Monday’s first round at the Royal Tennis Hall in Stockholm.
Three Swedish players advanced to the second round. Nike Gunnarsson (Inside Out TK) won in two sets against the Norwegian Celia Troan. Knut Andersch (Vallda TK) also won in two sets against Swiss player Brian Kriesi. Oliver Wennerstad (Salk) and Rhys Lawlor from England probably offered the most nerve-wracking match of the day, where the Swede finally won 9-7 in the tiebreak in the deciding set. – It was the best match in my career, said the Swede afterwards.
Among the top-seeded players on the girls’ side, it can be noted that both European champions winners from the Czech Republic made it through; second seed Sofie Hettlerova (win against Nicole Saidizand (Upsala TK) and fourth seed Veronika Sekerkova (win against Ella Wilstrup, Denmark).
In the boys’ singles, European number one Mark Ceban from England beat Ludwig Tolf (Djursholm’s TK), as expected.
On Tuesday, the first round of singles will be completed at the same time as the doubles tournament starts (13.00). In the singles, we get to watch the first-seeded European number one on the girls’ side, Ksenia Efremova, in action. Second-seeded Jan Urbanski from Poland is up against the Swedish player Måns Lidman (Åkersberga TK).
Another great match is Turkish Mustafa Ege Sik who is ranked top 10 in Europe against Alexey Frolov who just won Tim Essonne CAT 1 in Paris.
From a Swedish perspective, Grace Bernstein and Rebecca Malmström (KLTK have exciting matches we are looking forward to.