DOHA, January 2, 2018

Second seed Pablo Carreno Busta lost his opening match at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha. The World No. 10 from Spain fell to Croatia’s youngster Borna Coric 7-5, 2-6, 6-7 on Tuesday afternoon.

Coric struck 13 aces, broke serve five times and saved three match points in the tie-break of the final set to secure victory in two hours and 41 minutes.

“It was such a tough match. I think he was serving two times for the match and I was just thinking to myself [that] I was playing good for the whole match and that was my main focus,” told Coric, who will next take on Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia.

Feliciano López also won his first round encounter in a tie-break in the final set. The eighth seed emerged victorious from the all-Spanish-battle with Guillermo Garcia-López 6-4, 5-7, 7-6. López fired 23 aces, winning 76 per cent of his first service points to prevail after two hours and 31 minutes. Next up for the 36-year-old Toledo native will be qualifier Mirza Basic from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Later in the evening, Jan-Lennard Struff upset World No. 19 Tomas Berdych from the Czech Republic in another close match 6-4, 6-1, 7-6. The 27-year-old from Germany capitalized on three of his five break point opportunities to finish the encounter after two hours and eight minutes.