Moldova’s Radu Albot saved nine of the eleven break points he faced and converted five of his six break points in his 6-2 3-6 6-1 win over John Patrick Smith at the Singapore Open.
Albot has won three of his past four matches and reached the third round at the Australian Open.
Both players traded breaks in the third and fourth games. Albot broke twice in a row in the fifth and seventh games to win the first set 6-2. Smith broke in the sixth game to win the second set 6-3. Albot broke twice and saved four break points to cruise through to a 6-1 win in the third set.
The Moldovan player will take on Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann, who broke three times and fended off all three break points he faced to defeat James Duckworth 6-2 6-4.
Japan’s Yasutaka Uchiyama hit nine aces in his 6-4 2-6 6-4 win over Marc Polmans. Uchiyama will face either Soonwoo Kwon or US qualifier Thai-Son Kwiatowski. Uchiyama sealed the first set 6-4 with a break in the 10th game. Polmans broke twice in the first and seventh games to win the second set 6-2 to force the match to the third set. The decider went on serve until the 10th game when Uchiyama got the decisive break to close out the match.
Turkey’s Altub Celikbilek cruised past Japan’s Shintaro Mochizuki 6-0 6-4 setting up a second round match against Alexander Bublik.
On Monday Australia’s Alexei Popyrin battled past Christopher Eubanks 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5).
Taro Daniel battled past Ramkumar Ramanathan in two tie-breaks 6-3 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 after 2 hours and 6 minutes. The Japanese player saved both break points and broke once in each of the first and third sets.
Daniel earned a break in the sixth game to win the first set 6-3. The second set went on serve with no break points. Ramanathan got three mini-breaks to win the second-set tie-break 7-3 forcing the match to the decider. Daniel fended off two break points in the third game and earned a decisive break in the fourth game to open up a 3-1 lead. The Japanese player held three service games to secure his spot in the second round.
Adrian Andreev came back from one set down to beat Lloyd Harris 1-6 6-3 6-4 after 2 hours and 19 minutes. The Bulgarian player saved 12 of the 15 break points he faced.
Yoshihito Nishioka edged past Michael Mmoh 6-2 3-6 6-3 after 1 hour and 58 minutes. The Japanese player converted three of the ten break points. Mmoh rallied from a slow start to win the second set 6-3 with a break. Nishioka broke serve in the sixth game to win the decider 6-3. Maxime Cressy dropped serve to beat Jason Jung 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 after 1 hour and 29 minutes. Both players traded breaks in the first set to send the first set to tie-break, where Cressy prevaild 7-4. The US player broke twice to win the second set 6-2 securing his third third ATP Tour match win.
