01.06.2010 18:52:15 | At 11.00 a.m. on the court no. 2 a battle between Steve Darcis and Olivier Rochus started. The two Belgians arrived to Hana region to clash in the first round of UniCredit Open in a nerve racking drama affected by rain.
Steve Darcis was defending his last-year promotion into the finals and was concerned about the result very much indeed. In a literary horror tie-break he was leading 5:2 but in a thickening rain he lost five balls in a row and got defeated 7:5 in the end. The match lasted for seven hours, it was interrupted due to heavy rain several times and although Olivier Rochus complained about slippery clay it was Darcis who insisted on finishing the game despite the bad weather conditions. Thus the finals will remain an unfulfilled dream for him this year.
Two Kazakhs, Yuri Shukin and Andrei Golubev experienced the similar fate. They arrived a long way to clash for promotion into the second round. In a Kazakh derby it was Golubev who won in the end 6:3, 6:2.
