Dubai: Romanian Marius Copil became one of four qualifiers to book their places in the main draw and then trained his sights on a strong performance at this week’s Dubai Tennis Championships.
Copil had to dig in deep for a 7-5, 7-6 (2) win over Italian Andreas Seppi on Monday to set a first round main draw meeting with Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany on Court 3 on Tuesday afternoon.
“This is the second time that I am making the main draw of a tournament and I am happy that I am in such a position,” Copil told Gulf News.
“Seppi is a great player and he’s been in the top-100 for many years. But I am playing well and confident at the moment. I tried to dominate with my game and I am happy that all went well. Hope tomorrow will be same as today,” the 26-year-old Romanian smiled.
After a sedate start to 2017 that included a Round One exit in qualifying at the Australian Open, Copil managed a quarter-final at last week’s Budapest Challenger where he went down to Juergen Melzer of Austria.
The advantage, though, will be hugely in favour of Copil as he has defeated Struff, his opponent in today’s round, in straight sets before losing to Tomas Berdych at the Rotterdam Open earlier this month.
“Tough two tournaments, and my loss to Berdych gave me a lot of confidence, and hopefully I can carry forward something in tomorrow’s match,” he shrugged.
However, staging a comeback has been tough for the Romanian Davis Cup as a torn abdomen muscle set him back by six months. “The goal for 2017 would be to stay healthy,” he said.
“I enjoy tennis and I enjoy travelling on the tour. The most important thing will be to stay healthy. It was tough, but I can’t complain as we are now in a new season and it is a brand new season,” he added.
Men’s final round qualifying:
Evgeny Donskoy bt James McGee 6-1, 6-3; Denis Istomin bt Marton Fucsovics 6-1, 7-6 (5); Marius Copil bt Andreas Seppi 7-5, 7-6 (2).
