Wild Card Pavic Stuns Home Hope Haase; Melzer Wins Opener

© Edwin Verhoef/Unicef OpenDutch title hope Robin Haase fell in early action at the UNICEF Open.

World No. 640 Mate Pavic recorded his first tour-level singles win on Monday at the UNICEF Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch as he stunned fourth-seeded Dutchman Robin Haase 6-4, 7-6(2). The Croatian wild card, who is just 18 years old, converted his only break point chance and fended off three of Haase’s break point opportunities to claim victory in 76 minutes.

The left-handed Pavic lost in the quarter-finals of a Futures tournament in Bosnia & Herzegovina three weeks ago and was contesting just his second ATP World Tour main draw. Haase, who is ranked 600 places higher in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, suffered his fourth first-round exit in five tournaments and dropped to a 13-15 mark on the season.

Pavic goes onto face German qualifier Philipp Petzschner, who converted three of his 11 break points to defeat Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-2 in 67 minutes. The No. 145-ranked Petzschner recorded his first win since reaching the second round in Memphis (l. to Kubot) in February.

Third seed Jurgen Melzer made a strong start to his campaign at the ATP World Tour 250 grass-court tennis tournament. The Austrian dismissed Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn 6-1, 6-1 in 55 minutes, only losing six points on serve and capitalising on five of his nine break points.

World No. 35 Melzer is looking to find form this week, having not won back-to-back matches since winning his fourth ATP World Tour title in Memphis (d. Raonic) in February. He was a quarter-finalist in ‘s-Hertogenbosch on his last visit in 2008 and goes onto face Japan’s Tatsuma Ito, a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(2) winner over Hungarian qualifier Marton Fucsovics.

David Goffin, the 21-year-old Belgian who caused a stir by reaching the fourth round as a qualifier at Roland Garros, was beaten in the first round by France’s Benoit Paire, 6-1, 6-4. His fellow Belgian, Olivier Rochus, fared better. The 31 year old was leading 6-3, 4-0 when his opponent, Malek Jaziri, retired due to illness.

Croatian Ivan Dodig, who upset Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to reach The Queen's Club quarter-finals last week, fell in his opening match against Italian Paolo Lorenzi, 6-4, 6-4.

A pair of South Americans advanced to the second round. Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer defeated Russian qualifier Mikhail Ledovskikh 6-4, 6-2, while Colombian Alejandro Falla dismissed Spain’s Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-4, 6-4.

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