UMAG, July 21, 2016

The top two top seeds kicked-off their campaign at the Konzum Croatia Open Umag on Thursday evening. The tournament’s number one Pablo Cuevas, who won the title here two years ago, lost to Gastao Elias 6-3, 3-6, 6-7. The 25-year-old Portuguese broke serve two times and saved one match point to prevail in two hours and 15 minutes.

Next up for Elias is sixth seed Pablo Carreno Busta, who moved into the quarterfinals winning 6-4, 6-2 over Teymuraz Gabashvili. The sixth seed from Spain landed 69% of his first serves in play and only dropped 11 points on serve all match to advance in 65 minutes.

Another Portuguese player made his way into the stage of the final eight when second favourite Joao Sousa celebrated a convincing 7-5, 7-6 win over Leonardo Mayer. The world number 32 from Guimares capitalized on two of his five break point chances to seal victory in one hour and 35 minutes.

Sousa will next take on Andrej Martin, who emerged victorious from the all-Slovakian-battle with Hamburg champion Martin Klizan, winning 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. The 26-year-old from Bratislava rallied from a set down and saved five match points in the 10th game of the second frame. Martin finished the encounter after two hours and 26 minutes to reach his first tour-level quarterfinal of the season.

No words needed … @CroatiaOpenUmag pic.twitter.com/FslTmwc8OV

— Andrej Martin (@AndrejMartinSVK) 21. Juli 2016