Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi earned his 100th tour-level win on Monday, beating wild card Cem Ilkel 6-2, 6-3 at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open.
The 36-year-old Italian, who reached a career-high ATP Ranking of No. 33 in May 2017, won 83 per cent of first-serve points en route to the 66-minute milestone win. Lorenzi lifted his only ATP World Tour title on clay at the 2016 Generali Open, while also reaching three further championship matches on the surface during his 15-year career.
Lorenzi will next meet Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti, who battled from a set down to defeat fellow qualifier Elias Ymer 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. The 28-year-old won 67 per cent of points on his serve and broke the Swede on four occasions to book his spot in the second round.
No. 6 seed Viktor Troicki came from behind to beat Australia’s Bernard Tomic 3-6, 6-0, 7-5. The Serbian, who reached the semi-finals in 2017 (l. to Raonic), hit 13 aces and broke Tomic on five occasions to emerge victorious after one hour and 49 minutes.
Competing for the first time on the ATP World Tour since the 2017 Erste Bank Open 500 (l. Herbert), Tomic served for the match at 5-4 in the final set, but Troicki won four straight games to reach the second round.
Troicki takes a 3-2 lead in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Tomic and moves into a second-round encounter against Moldova's Radu Albot or Rogerio Dutra Silva of Brazil.
Serbian Laslo Djere snapped a 10-match losing streak to upset Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 7-6(5), 7-6(6). The 22-year-old saved a set point at 5/6 in the second-set tie-break before booking his place in the second round after two hours and four minutes. The 2017 quarter-finalist (l. to Troicki), will meet Gazprom Hungarian Open semi-finalist Andreas Seppi for a place in the quarter-finals.
Did You Know?
Of Paolo Lorenzi’s 100 tour-level match wins, 58 have come on clay. The Italian has also won 38 hard-court matches and four encounters on grass.