No surprises here! Lukas Rosol finishes in the first round at the tournament in Ostrava

Lukas Rosol is having a very bad start to the 2023 season. Nothing changed even at the Challenger tournament in Ostrava, where he dropped out in the first round. However, fate assigned him a very good opponent.

Thirty-seven-year-old Lukas Rosol played fifteen competitive matches in the 2023 calendar year, leaving the court as a winner only four times. He has won only ITF tournaments.

The two-time Davis Cup winner did not handle the transition from hard to clay surface optimally. The Brno native played his first match on the slowest surface at the end of March in Trnava, where he lost to a tennis player from Ivory Coast, who is ranked fifth in the ATP rankings.

Rosol wanted to repair his reputation at his home challenger in Ostrava. A year ago, he dropped out in the first round because he was not able to beat his compatriot Zdeněk Kolář. The latter won after sets 6::3 and 7::5.

Even the 20th edition of the Ostrava Challenger did not go as Rosol expected. To some extent, however, it was due to the draw, which assigned him Ivan Gakhov, the tournament’s number two. The Russian tennis player has been performing very well in recent weeks.

Gakhov won the tournament in Estoril, in Monte Carlo he scored very valuable scalps of Mannarino, van Assche and McDonald. So he clearly entered the duel with the Czech tennis player as a paper favourite.

He confirmed it in the first set, taking away his opponent’s serve once and winning 6::4. The second act was much more even, after 49 minutes of a tough fight Lukáš Rosol finally won the set (6::3).

The third set had to be decided by the advancing team, but it came after a forced break – due to bad weather. Gakhov managed his return to the court better, taking his opponent’s serve twice and winning 6::1

Two other Czech tennis players – Zdeněk Kolář and Jakub Menšík – also got into action. Both won in two sets and will find out their opponents for the second round on Tuesday.

Source: ATP