CORDENONS

Day 5 at the FriulAdria Crédit Agricole Tennis Cup took place on Ferragosto, which is one of the most important religious  family holiday in Italy. The 15th of August is also considered as the hottest day of the year and thus denotes the “turning point of the summer”. With temperatures up to 23 degrees Celsius in Cordenons, however, this wasn’t the case this Friday. Even worse, rain interrupted the tennis action once again and only the remaining second round matches could be completed.

Only 18-year-old Elias Ymer should become the first player to reach the stage of the last eight. The world number 261 defeated Spanish veteran Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, who is twice the Swede’s age, in 62 minutes winning 6-2, 6-1.

“I only made a few unforced errors in this match, I was playing very well and I had a good day,” Ymer was satisfied afterwards. “I watched Ruben on TV and studied him a lot, which I think was a key today. I haven’t had the opportunity to see him playing live that often, so I went on YouTube and watched some matches,” the youngster said that this is a common thing he does for his match preparation. “I wish that there were some other Swedish players like Söderling still playing, so that I could have someone up there but now it is like it is. It was never a goal for me to be Swedish number one, I only would like to be within the top 100 and we all work hard on that but actually I do not really set my goals in terms of ranking positions,” the Swedish teenager added and was looking forward to his third ATP Challenger quarterfinal against top-seed Paolo Lorenzi, who defeated Daniel Munoz de la Nava in straight sets 6-4, 7-5.

Four Italians had to play against each other. Filippo Volandri took out Alessandro Giannessi, who reached the semi-final in San Marino last week, through a comfortable performance winning 6-4, 6-1 in 71 minutes.

Seventh-seed Potito Starace was also untroubled in his second round match against lucky loser Walter Trusendi. The 33-year-old lost only two games in each set winning 6-1, 6-1 in 66 minutes to set an eighth Tour meeting with Volandri in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

Guillaume Rufin prevailed beating San Marino champion Adrian Ungur in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 and was happy after the 93-minutes-encounter. “

I’m really satisfied. We really had tough conditions. I think we started this match three of four times since yesterday but I tried to stay focused and I played very well against a very good opponent,” the 24-year-old Frenchman stated after the match, which lasted over two days due to the rain. “In October I had a hip surgery and earlier this year I had some abdominal problems, so I have only played a couple of tournaments since September. Two weeks ago I started to play well again. I’m on a good way and I’ll try to continue like this,” the world number 455 told after reaching his first quarterfinal of the season.

Rufin will face Daniel Gimeno-Traver next. The second-seeded Spaniard cruised past Rui Machado without facing a single break point in the evening hours on Centre court winning 6-0, 6-1 in only 58 minutes. “

I had one of these days when you go on court and everything works out for you. Before he (Machado) hit the ball, I already knew on which side it would go. There are only two or three days like that in the entire year, which are good for your confidence and just to enjoy playing tennis,” the world number 106 was happy. “The whole summer is pretty rainy. I played in Stuttgart, Hamburg, Gstaad and Cortina. At all these places we had rain interruptions. You’re getting used to it. Maybe it is also good to recharge your batteries, as if I win tomorrow there will be another two matches in one day,” the 29-year-old Spaniard is looking forward to tomorrow’s quarterfinals as well as semi-finals, which will be all played on Saturday.