Moldovan Radu Albot arrived in Lyon for the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon having lost his past six matches at all levels. Not only that, but the World No. 97 had dropped 12 of his past 14 matches overall.
Yet the 28-year-old bounced back, defeating Argentine Federico Delbonis 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-4 on Sunday to set up a second-round clash against Miami champion John Isner, whom he beat at the New York Open earlier this year.
In fact, this will be the pair’s third FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting of the season, as the American returned the favour against the Chisnau native the following week, ousting Albot at the Delray Beach Open in three sets.
It was not easy for Albot to set the clash, though. After failing to convert a set point in the opener, the Moldovan struggled to break Delbonis’ serve. It took until his eighth break point of the match, at 5-5 in the second set, to earn the advantage. And in the decider, he again had issues converting his chances, missing out on six break chances in the opening game. But in Delbonis’ second service game of the third set, Albot finally broke (2/13 in the match) before holding the rest of the way to move on.
Frenchman Calvin Hemery won the only other main draw singles match of the day, beating compatriot and #NextGenATP player Corentin Moutet 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-3 in two hours, 47 minutes to earn his second tour-level victory. Hemery next faces No. 5 seed Adrian Mannarino or Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
Top Seeds Ousted In Doubles
While Garcia-Lopez fell in singles, the Spaniard partnered Indian Divij Sharan to shock top seeds Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer 6-4, 6-2. Elsewhere, Roman Jebavy and Matwe Middelkoop escaped a tight Match Tie-break, squeezing by home favourites Jonathan Eyserric and Hugo Lys 6-3, 3-6, 11-9.