It was a day to remember for David Goffin as he narrowly avoided making a shock second round exit at the Barcelona Open.
The Belgian fourth seed appeared destined for a straight sets loss to home player Marcel Granollers. Trailing the match 4-6, 1-5, Goffin then saved a match point before staging a dramatic turnaround to win 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-2. The disparity between the two players showed in the decider as Goffin raised his game to edge out the world No.129, who regrets not being able to close out the match.
“When you are so close and can’t kill off the game, it’s really hard,” said Granollers. “Today it was tough to lose, there are not a lot of positive things in my head right now.”
Goffin, who lost to Grigor Dimitrov last week at the Monte Carlo Masters, is hoping to win his second ATP 500 title. In the next round he will take on either Karen Khachanov or Leonardo Mayer.
Novak Djokovic discovered who his first opponent in the tournament will be. The Serbian, who has a first round bye, will take on Slovakian qualifier Martin Klizan. A player he leads 4-0 in their head-to-head. Klizan edged out Argentina’s Federico Delbonis 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4, on Tuesday.
“First of all the tournament is very lucky here because it has a lot of great players. Barcelona, in general, this tournament has always had top players,” Djokovic said during his press conference.
“Obviously I have to be a little bit more modest with my expectations for the tournament. I have to focus only on winning the next match, even though potentially I understand that everybody would like to see Nadal-Djokovic in the quarter-finals.”
12th seed Feliciano Lopez could play Djokovic in the third round of the tournament. The Spaniard got off to a winning start with a rollercoaster 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, win over Dusan Lajovic. This year is Lopez’s 18th appearance in the Barcelona Main draw. Since making his debut back in 1998, he is yet to progress beyond the quarter-final stage.
“In the second set I started to notice that I was a bit short. I had a bit of a stumble, but then I fought all the points until the end and I was able to break the service and win the game. It was very complicated,” Lopez commented about his latest win.
Eighth seed Roberto Bautista Agut also progressed in the draw. The 30-year-old withstood 15 aces from Ivo Karlovic to prevail 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4. Bautista Agut has featured in 14 ATP finals so far in his career, but only one has occurred in his home country. He was runner-up at the 2014 Valencia Open.
On Wednesday top seed and defending champion Rafael Nadal will begin his campaign. Nadal, who won his 76th title in Monte Carlo last week, will take on Roberto Carballés Baena.
ORDER OF PLAY – Wednesday 25 April 👇 pic.twitter.com/PJ9ZQ27of6
— BcnOpen BancSabadell (@bcnopenbs) 24 April 2018
