05.06.2019 15:41:39 | Twenty-five year old Václav Šafránek (No. 346 in ATP) was the last but one Czech in the singles, which has never happened in the history of the Prostejov tournament. This year he won a Futures tournament in Antalyi, played in the third round of the challenger in Nan Chang and defeated the third seeded Lucas Meindler of Austria on Tuesday.
Last year Czechs were ousted from the MONETA Czech Open tournament on Thursday. Besides Šafránek there was also Vít Kopřiva. The top seed Casper Ruud of Norway played consistently from the beginning: he did not give Šafránek a chance and let him only win two games.
What did Šafránek say after the match? “He was an outright winner. The ranking gap between the two of us revealed itself. He’s a very good quality player and plays great tennis. His forehand is very fast and he uses it to make pressure on his opponents. It’s very difficult to respond to it and the set was over before I could get used to it. Let alone I made many mistakes.”
