ATP Tour

Mensik, Cobolli make winning starts in Umag

Czech teen Jakub Mensik continued his push towards a place at December’s Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF with a convincing win over Alexei Popyrin at the Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag Monday.

Mensik, who reached the Doha final in February, improved to 13-10 on the season with a 6-3, 6-2 win over the Australian (13-13), who recently pushed Novak Djokovic to four sets at Wimbledon.

In the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting, 18-year-old Mensik saved all four break points he faced according to Infosys ATP Stats.

Mensik, who is now 8-4 in first-round matches in his career, next faces the winner of fifth-seeded Italian Luciano Darderi and home hope Duje Ajdukovic, who last week pushed Rafael Nadal to three sets in the Bastad semi-finals.

In another good result for the ATP’s emerging stars Monday, 22-year-old Italian Flavio Cobolli upset sixth-seeded Argentine Mariano Navone 6-2, 6-3. The win lifted Cobolli to a career-high No. 46 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.

Brazilian Thiago Monteiro defeated seventh-seeded Czech Tomas Machac 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to set a meeting with Hungarian Fabian Marozsan.

Lorenzo Sonego denied 20-year-old Croatian Mili Poljicak his first tour-level with an exhausting 6-2, 6-7(1), 7-6(9) victory in three hours and 16 minutes, with the Italian fighting through cramps in the final set. He next will meet Frenchman Alexandre Muller.