On another rainy day in Gstaad ended his five match losing streak in Gstaad after a 6-3 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo.
The eighth seed claimed victory in 1 hour and 10 minutes after he broke Giraldo’s serve four times during the match. Sousa had lost his five matches dating back to Roland Garros in May, however he finally he got his act together and played aggressive tennis en route to victory. The world number 61 is currently 15-18 for the 2017 season. Sousa will now play either Thomaz Bellucci or Henri Laaksonen.
Sixth seed Robin Haase also prevailed today in a comfortable 6-1 6-4 victory over Argentinian Renzo Olivo. There were 70 ranking places between the two players as Haase created 13 break point opportunities as he broke down the game of Olivo. The win means Haase picked up his 19th victory of the season. He will now play Brazilian Thiago Monteiro who picked up an impressive 7-6(5) 3-6 6-3 win over Alexandr Dolgopolov. The Ukrainian was unable to build on his final from Bastad last week as Monteiro’s clay court knowledge showed.
The last two results of the day saw Radu Albot and Dustin Brown pick up vital wins to advance to the second round. The Moldovan beat Mikhail Youzhny 4-6 7-6(6) 7-5 to set up a second round meeting with top seed David Goffin. While Brown knocked out seventh seed Dusan Lajovic 6-3 7-6(3) to set up a clash with Denis Istomin.