World Number 75 player Daniel Munoz de la Nava from Spain pulled off the biggest upset at the Qatar Exxon Mobil in Doha on Monday when he fought back from a set down to beat his compatriot Feliciano Lopez in three sets with 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 after 2 hours and 25 minutes. Lopez hit 24 aces but converted just one of his nine break point chances.
De la Nava will face 2015 Davis Cup champion Kyle Edmund who hit seven aces in his his 6-2 6-3 win over Martin Klizan.
Jeremy Chardy dropped just seven points on his serve to cruise to 6-1 6-1 over 20-year-old Mubarak Shannan Zayid in 46 minutes.
Damir Dzumhur from Bosnia and Herzegovina beat Marco Cecchinato 6-4 6-2. Dzumhur broke serve as Cecchinato made a double fault. Dzumur went down 0-30 when he served for the set but he rallied to wrap up the first set. At 1-2 Dzumur won five consecutive games to take the second set with 6-2.
Robin Haase rallied from a set down to edge Aslan Karatsev 5-7 6-1 7-5. In the final match of the Monday programme Andrei Kuznetsov beat Marsel Ihlan 6-2 6-4.
In the doubles tournament Rafael Nadal teamed up with his compatriot Fernando Verdasco but the all-Spanish team lost to Teymuraz Gabashvili and Albert Ramos Vinolas 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 11-9. Nadal will make his debut in the singles against his compatriot Pablo Carrno Busta.
“I feel more confident this year but anything can happen. We worked a little bit different this year in the off-season. We try to find different positions on court, ty to play more inside and we work a lot on the return. We feel that we need a few things that are different than other years but on the same time without losing the character of my game”, said Nadal
