05.06.2024 10:17:05 | The defending champion Dalibor Svrcina had to endure a very tough battle to advance to the second round. In last year’s UniCredit Czech Open, he defeated Tomas Machac in the final. This year, he lost the first set against Valentin Royer of France in a tiebreak, but then he confirmed his position as the favorite and won the remaining two sets 6-3 and 6-3.
"I expected it to be a tough match because the opponent has been in great form lately. That absolutely proved to be true. However, I took advantage of my perfect knowledge of the center court," said Svrcina after the match. The Czech admitted that he had been thinking about defending his triumph from last year. "It's somewhere there a little bit, but I try not to dwell on it too much. I want to take each match as it comes and just play my best on the court. I felt good in the week leading up to this, but the desired results were not coming. Hopefully that will change now," said Svrcina.
