Francesco Passaro bagged his first ATP tournament win when he competed at the Florence Open, Florence 2022 season.
The 21-year-old gave his best to beat the Chinese Zhang Zhizhen 7-6, 7-6 to advance to the second round of the Florence Open. In doing so, he moved closer to a place in the Next Gen ATP Finals.
“Of course for me it’s an amazing day. My first win in an ATP tournament, so, I feel very happy,” said Francesco Passaro.
“Now I will focus on the next round. I am motivated to win matches and improve rankings. Now, I will rest and the next day I will train.”
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The 21-year-old is ninth in the ATP Race to Milan standings and with a win over Zhang, he is now 71 points clear of Dominic Stricker who is in tenth and has not competed in any tournaments this week. He is now 29 points behind Taiwanese tennis player Chun Hsin Tseng who is in eighth position.
Passaro showed no trepidation against Zhang in the second set tiebreak. After securing a set point opportunity at 5/6, the world number 126 aggressively shot backhand returns on her match point opportunities.
Another contender for a place in Milan is Brandon Nakashima who claimed a convincing 6-2, 6-2 victory over French veteran Richard Gasquet 6-2, 6-2. The US is currently sixth in the ATP Race to Milan standings and in the second round of the Florence Open, he will face Turkey’s Altug Celikbilek.
In other action, Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik added another win to his impressive record at indoor tournaments for the 2022 season.
Seventh seed Bublik claimed a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Chilean Cristian Garin. It was the 100th win in his career. Throughout the match, he hit 37 winners and broke Garin’s serve three times to claim his 14th indoor tournament win of the 2022 season.
The next test for Bublik at the Florence Open is the second round match against French tennis player Corentin Moutet.
Like Bublik, host Lorenzo Sonego also won the indoor tournament title this season, but the 2022 Moselle Open champion lost early in the Florence Open to Bernabe Zapata MIralles who won 6-4, 6-4. In the second round, the Spaniard will face another host player and third seed, Lorenzo Musetti.
The German tennis player Oscar Otte performed well in a crucial moment when he beat Marton Fucsovics 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 and booked a second round match against first seed Felix Auger Aliassime.
