POREC, March 14, 2021
Austrian teenager Filip Misolic captured his first professional title by winning the opening event of the 2021 Istarska Rivijera, Croatia’s oldest international tennis tournament series, held at the Tennis Centar Pical in Porec. The 19-year-old defeated Pietro Rondoni of Italy 6-4, 6-4 in the singles final.
Misolic battled through the top half of the draw of the ITF World Tennis Tour M15 event, beating French qualifier Samuel Brosset, World No. 3 in the Juniors Ranking Martin Damm from the United States, No. 7 seed Pavel Nejedly of the Czech Republic and No. 5 seeded US-American Alex Rybakov en-route to the championship match.
On a chilly Sunday morning in Porec, Misolic recovered from a slow start and a break down to clinch the opening set after about an hour of play. Most of the second set took place in drizzling conditions but the World No. 954 kept up the momentum and broke Rondoni’s serve in the opening game. Misolic also stayed calm after he failed to serve out for the match in the eighth game and secured victory in one hour and 57 minutes.
