Former Top 10 Players Nicolas Almagro, Mikhail Youzhny Cruise in Casablanca
Former top 10 players Nicolas Almagro of Spain and Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny notched up effortless wins in their respective first-round encounters at the ATP 250 Grand Prix Hassan II in Casablanca, Morocco.
Whilst the former pulled off his second consecutive conquest of Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel 6-4 6-1, the latter also eased past wildcard entrant Yassine Idmbarek 6-3 6-1 on Tuesday here.
“Today I was very aggressive from the baseline and played a good match,” Almagro was quoted as saying by the ATP World Tour.
Foreseeing a tough battle in the second round with Carlos Berlocq, he added: “Tomorrow, I expect a tough battle against Carlos, who is an excellent clay-court player. I’m ready to fight.”
1st Round Results
(W) L Ouahab d. R Haase (6-2 6-4)
D Gimeno-Traver d. M Jaziri (6-4 6-3)
M Youzhny d. Y Idmbarek (6-3 6-1)
(Q) A Bedene d. M Gonzalez (6-3 3-6 6-3)
(Q) AD Greef d. (8) D Schwartzman (4-6 7-5 6-4)
(6) A Haider-Maurer d. J Struff (6-2 6-7 7-6)
P Andujar d. T Kamke (6-3 6-4)
D Dzumhur d. (Q) P Mathieu (6-2 7-6)
(W) N Almagro d. (Q) T Daniel (6-4 6-1)