It has been a bad day if you are the top seed in an ATP tournament this week. Just hours after Jack Sock exited the Auckland tournament, Albert Ramos-Vinolas followed suit in Sydney. The Spanish top seed was beaten 6-3, 7-5 by the unseeded Italian veteran Paolo Lorenzi.
Lorenzi broke in the eighth game of the first set, winning a marathon 22-points game. The Italian then held serve to establish the set lead.
The veteran Italian, who reached the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time at the 2017 US Open, was never troubled much on serve. Ramos-Vinolas had a brief look at a break in game four but was thwarted.
Lorenzi waited until the business end of the set before making the significant move in the second. Again a lengthy 19-points game was what it took to wrestle the break away from the top seed. Lorenzi then held comfortably for the unlikely win. the 36 year-old veteran will play the winner of the match between Jared Donaldson and qualifier Daniil Medvedev.
5th seed Adrian Mannarino had no such problems as he won 6-1, 6-2 against lucky loser Ricardas Berankis. Mannarino waits for either Fabio Fognini or Alexandr Dolgopolov in the quarter-finals.
Unseeded Benoit Paire also earned a good win against Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer. The Frenchman won 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. Paire played two excellent sets and one indifferent one, though it proved enough to beat Mayer on the day.
