Matija Pecotic, a 33-year-old Croatian who works full time for an investment firm, had a good reason to miss work on Tuesday.
He earned a victory in his ATP Tour debut, beating former world No. 8 player Jack Sock 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the Delray Beach (Fla.) Open.
Pecotic was a former top junior player who starred at Princeton. However, his tennis career was waylaid due to stomach surgery and a staph infection, and he went to Harvard Business School and turned to the world of finance.
Back on court Tuesday, he got a taste of what might have been, producing a 10-3 edge in aces on Sock and saving six of the eight break points he faced.
Pecotic, who is ranked 784th in the world, next will face Portuguese qualifier Nuno Borges.
In other first-round action, Marcos Giron defeated eighth-seeded Ben Shelton 6-4, 6-4 in an all-U.S. matchup, and ninth-seeded J.J. Wolf of the United States got past Belarus’ Ilya Ivashka 7-5, 6-3. Also winning their opening-round matches were Moldova’s Radu Albot, France’s Adrian Mannarino, the United States’ Mackenzie McDonald and Australia’s Aleksandar Vukic.
Argentina Open
Austria’s Dominic Thiem, the 2020 U.S. Open champion whose ranking is down to No. 99 in the world, upset seventh-seeded Alex Molcan of Slovakia 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the first round at Buenos Aires.
The match featured no service breaks until each player lost his serve just ahead of the first-set tiebreaker, during which Thiem jumped out to a 5-1 lead. Serving again dominated the second set, but Thiem got the lone break to go up 5-3, then served out the match.
Fifth-seeded Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina downed German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, but two other seeded players fell. Serbian qualifier Dusan Lajovic rallied past sixth-seeded Sebastian Baez of Argentina 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3, and Roberto Carballes Baena won an all-Spanish battle against Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-5, 6-4.
Also advancing were Peruvian qualifier Juan Pablo Varillas and three Argentines: Tomas Martin Etcheverry, wild-card entrant Facundo Diaz Acosta and qualifier Camilo Ugo Carabelli.
ABN AMRO Open
Sixth-seeded Russian Daniil Medvedev came from behind to beat Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round at Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open champion, had nine aces to Davidovich Fokina’s one and converted half of his 16 break-point chances.
The seeded players in action all prevailed. No. 1 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, No. 3 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada and No. 8 Alexander Zverev of Germany won in straight sets, while No. 5 Hubert Hurkacz of Poland nipped Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut 7-5, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (4). Hurkacz squandered three match points in the second set before regrouping to win the third.
Dutch wild-card entrants Gijs Brouwer and Tallon Griekspoor also earned first-round wins.
–Field Level Media
