Playing at home is always a special occasion and for Roberto Bautista, who is from Castellon de la Plana which is in the Autonomous Region of Valencia, the Valencia Open is at close as it comes. Despite the home comforts, the tournament threw up a very tough opening round match against Nicolas Almagro.
If there’s one thing Bautista has been in the last few years it’s consistent and, after reaching the final in Moscow just a couple of days ago, he kept his fine form up with a 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 win against a player who is desperate to find that consistency which Bautista has in abundance.
Steve Johnson also kept a solid season going with a comfortable win against Klizan. The American, who is barely talked about, thereby won his 34th match of the year and set up a round two clash with Feliciano Lopez.
Two players booked their tickets for the quarter finals: Pablo Cuevas, who rallied back from a set down to knock out number three seed Bernard Tomic, and Vasek Pospisil who got the better of Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-4.
The day’s action concluded when Marcel Granollers slumped to his twentieth defeat of the season. The Spaniard, whose ranking has dropped to 87, didn’t have any answers for Andrey Rublev’s far superior tennis and made a swift exit from the Valencia Open 6-4, 6-4.
All of this came on a day where the executive director of the Valencia Open, David Serrahima, mentioned that the tournament might not take place next year because the local government hasn’t met certain requirements within their agreement.
