OPATIJA/STARNBERG, March 28, 2025

Top seed Luka Mikrut (ATP 360) continued his dominant run at the ITF World Tennis Tour M15 tournament in Opatija, securing a commanding 6-1, 6-2 quarterfinal victory over fellow 20-year-old Josip Simundza (ATP 887) in just 76 minutes on Friday.

Mikrut was in complete control throughout the match, not allowing a single break point while breaking Simundza’s serve five times. With this win, he advances to his second semifinal of the season and his second career semifinal at an Istarska Rivijera series. His previous semifinal appearance in Opatija came two years ago, where he was stopped by the eventual champion, Ukrainian Viacheslav Bielinskyi.

For a place in the final, Mikrut will face 27-year-old Spaniard Sergi Perez Contri (ATP 721), last year’s Opatija finalist. Perez Contri reached the semifinals after Bosnian-Herzegovinian Andrej Nedic retired from their quarterfinal match following a first-set tie-break loss.

Mikrut has been in superb form, dropping only 12 games in his first three matches at the Opatija tournament.

The second singles semifinal will feature third seed Michael Vrbensky (ATP 406) of the Czech Republic against Macedonian qualifier Kalin Ivanovski (ATP 1325). Ivanovski prevented an all-Czech semifinal by upsetting second seed Zdenek Kolar.

The doubles final, also scheduled for Saturday, will see Croatian duo Karlo Kajin and Deni Zmak take on Hungarians Matyas Fuele and Gergely Madarasz.

Kajin and Zmak secured their place in the final with a dominant 6-3, 6-1 victory over Germans Christian Djonov and Felix Einig. Meanwhile, Fuele and Madarasz staged a comeback win against Italians Alessandro Battistone and Pietro Pampanino, prevailing 4-6, 6-2, 12-10.

Istarska Rivijera Opatija Friday Results

Singles – Quarterfinals

Luka Mikrut (Cro/1) – Josip Simundza (Cro) 6-1, 6-2

Sergi Perez Contri (Esp) – Andrej Nedic (BIH/7) 7-6 (5), retirement

Michael Vrbensky (Cze/3) – Ognjen Milic (Srb) 6-3, 6-1

Kalin Ivanovski (NMK) – Zdenek Kolar (Cze/2) 6-3, 7-6 (4