The first racket of Latvian men’s tennis, Ernests Gulbis, on Tuesday, having played the first official game since the beginning of March, won the second round of the Prague “Challenger” series tournament.
Swan, who is 162nd in the ATP rankings and placed 14th in the tournament, defeated 18-year-old Czech tennis player Andrew Polson, who is ranked 822nd, in the second round with 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.
Gulbis has earned ten ATP points for reaching the third round or the eighth final. In the next duel, he will be confronted by the second number of the tournament, Jirži Veselijs from the Czech Republic (ATP 65) or Russian Aslan Karacjov (ATP 263).
In Tuesday’s duel, Gulbis performed seven elusive services, but the opponent had ten “aisles”. The Latvian made eight double mistakes, while Polson had three.
In the first set, Gulbis beat the opponent in the fifth game, but in the tenth game Polson answered with a break. However, the Latvian tennis player broke the Czech serve again and served in the 12th family.
In the second set, the Latvian played a total of five breakballs in two games, but in the 12th family he could not do it, so the winner was determined in the third set. In it, Gulbis won with the opponent’s serve broken in the seventh game.
For Gulbis, this was the first official game since the Davis Cup duel with Egypt, which took place in Latvia at the beginning of March. At the end of July, he participated in the Estonian-Latvian match in Tallinn, winning both singles and doubles.
Before the Davis Cup, Swan triumphed in France in the Po “Challenger” tournament, winning his fifth title and the first since 2007. Also at the beginning of the year, he successfully competed in the Australian Open, where he qualified and competed until the third round.
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