05.06.2018 14:38:57 | Václav Šafránek and the third seed Roberto Carballes of Spain opened the today’s programme on the Centre Court. The highest ATP ranking of the twenty-five-year-old native of Tenerife has been 72 this year. He also won his first title on the ATP tour in Ecuador and played the quarterfinal in Estoril, Portugal. The Spaniard started aggressively and was more accurate in rallies. He broke Šafránek’s serve right at the beginning, saved his and took the lead to 3:0.
Then, Šafránek picked up and levelled up to 3:3 with ease. The Carballes saved his serve again and was leading 4:3. Moreover, he broke Šafránek’s serve to 5:3. Šafránek could still save it: he was losing 0:40, but levelled up the game to deuce. However, the Spaniard’s two lines decided and the score was 5:3. The Spaniard was serving for the set and converted it to 6:3. Šafránek dominated at the beginning of the second set. He was leading 2:0, but then he lost his serve and Baena came back at 2:1. He lost his serve and Šafránek won his to 4:1. However, it still was not enough. Šafránek was at the verge of defeat at 4:5 and it was only the Spaniard’s lack of concentration that saved him. Šafránek won the tiebreak 7:2. And the third set? Šafránek was soon leading 2:0, but the Spaniard levelled up to 2:2 quickly. Šafránek was leading 4:2, 5:4 and showed more courage in the end.
The match took almost two hours. Václav Šafránek was the first surprise of the tournament after beating the third seeded Roberto Carballes Baena. The Spaniard had a chance to end up the match in the second set when he was serving. However, the Czech tennis player proved that he deserved the wild card from the organisers and tremendously turned the match around. “It was up and down. We kept breaking each others serves. It was an extremely tight match, fortunately with a good ending. I went through a little crisis in the second set, but I got better in the last one. I think that the opponent had a harder time,“ said Šafránek after the match. “I had to adjust my game after the beginning. I took more risk which really is not typical for me. But it paid off,“ said the victor. Besides Kolář, he is the second Czech to advance to the second round.
