02.06.2015 10:33:30 | Five Czechs appeared in the draw of the 22nd edition of the UniCredit Czech Open. Jan Hernych has already advanced to the second round. He beat Andrej Golubjov of Kazakhstan surprisingly easily. On the other hand, Jan Mertl easily lost to Andre Ghem of Brazil. Matthias Bachinger of Germany was the first day’s greatest surprise after he ousted the fourth seeded Pablo Carreno-Busta of Spain. The Spaniard’s best result this year was in Estoril where he made it through to the semi-finals in which he lost to Kirgios of Australia. The last three domestic players are playing today.
The second seed and the defending champion Jiří Veselý is playing Fucsovics of Hungary, the three-time champion Radek Štěpánek is clashing Mathieue of France, and the youngest of the five domestic players Adam Pavlásek will challenge Dusan Lajovic of Serbia. Pavlásek had a wild card last year in Prostějov and he surprisingly made it through to the semi-finals. This year, he made it to the main event. Shortly before the UniCredit Czech Open 2015, he reached his career best ranking 176 ATP. His advance to the finals at the Prosperita Open Challenger in Ostrava and Rome helped by a great deal. Dusan Lajovic has been known to the Czechs since 2013. He played the fifth and decisive match of the Davis Cup finals in Belgrade on November 17th in which he won five games… How is Lajovic doing this year? In the first round at Roland Garros, he easily defeated Gonzales of Argentina in three sets and he lost to Wawrinka of Switzerland in the second round. He made it through to the quarter-finals in Nice and Sao Paulo. Pavlásek has not faced Lajovic yet, they are going to meet for the first time.
