MANERBIO, August 21, 2017
The Italian clay court swing continues this week in Manerbio with the 41st edition of the €43,000 Internazionali di Manerbio Trofeo “Dimmidisi”, the lone ATP Challenger event taking place this week.
Danilo Petrovic opened his campaign with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Andrea Arnaboldi of Italy on Monday afternoon. The 25-year-old from Serbia fired seven aces, winning 67 per cent of his first service points to seal victory in one hour and 15 minutes.
“I had a couple of good wins in the last few weeks here in Italy and I think that I am in good shape,” Petrovic told Tennis TourTalk afterwards. “I just need to use my weapons and then I will be ready for much bigger results than I was making now.”
The World No. 301 captured two ITF Futures titles in Kazakhstan this season and showed some aggressive tennis on the opening day in Manerbio.
“I think that I am quite fast and agile for my size and I just tried to put the chances on my side, trust in my weapons and hope for the best,” told the big-serving Serbian, who could have set up another meeting with the tournament’s top-seed Guillermo Garcia-López in the second round. Petrovic beat the Spaniard in Cordenons last week. First of all, however, the World No. 136 from Albacete has to defeat Austrian lucky loser Lenny Hampel.
“When you are playing against guys like him, you always have to bring your best on the court. I had a good run last week, although Guillermo did not play his best. We will see what is going to happen this time,” Petrovic is looking forward to the encounter. “For the rest of the season the goal is to reach the Top 200 entering the qualifying of the Australian Open.”
Sixth seed Mathias Bourgue edged past Italian Matteo Viola 6-3, 6-4. The 23-year-old from France capitalized on four of his six break point chances to advance in one hour and 39 minutes. Bourgue awaits the winner of the all-Italian-affair between qualifier Lorenzo Sonego and wild card entry Andrea Pellegrino.
Later in the day, Steven Diez of Canada overcame Matteo Donati of Italy 6-3, 4-6, 6-1. The 26-year-old finished the encounter after one hour and 48 minutes, winning 54 per cent of the total points played.
