Spanish festival at the ATP 250 tournament in Marbella
The few spectators in Marbella can currently experience true Spanish festivals. These are led by tournament favorite Pablo Carreno Busta , who made a successful start on Wednesday.
by Florian Heer
last edit:
Apr 08, 2021, 12:12 pm
Spanish tennis players and the sand. This is known to be a particularly loving relationship. Rafael Nadal, the most successful player on the Iberian Peninsula, and his 13 titles won on the ashes of Roland-Garros speak their own language.
So some of the top Spanish players should have been all the happier to be able to open the European clay court season at the AnyTech365 Andalucia Open on home soil. Ten local heroes can be found in the main field at the ATP Tour premiere in Marbella.
Carreno Busta starts attacking title win
The top seeded Pablo Carreno Busta celebrated his return to clay with a 7: 6 (2), 6: 3 second round success over his compatriot Mario Vilella Martinez on Wednesday afternoon on the Manolo Santana court of the Puente Romano tennis club.
"That was a very important match for me today because I haven't competed in a few weeks", revealed the number 15 in the ATP world rankings. After the ATP Cup Down Under and a loss in the third round of the Australian Open against Grigor Dimitrov went to Dubai for Carreno Busta, but at the hard-court desert event in mid-March, the Asturian failed already on his first hurdle Marton Fucsovics.
"It was important to get off to a good start against strong opponents today. A new tournament week is always difficult, but I played solid tennis."
Challenger Soonwoo Kwon
Carreno Busta will now face number seven seeded Soonwoo Kwon in the quarter-finals. And speaking of clay court tennis. The 23-year-old South Korean, who grew up on hard courts, was able to record his very first ATP Tour victory on the red ashes during his opening match on the Costa del Sol against the Danish youngster Holger Rune. In the duel with the Argentine Facundo Bagnis, Kwon was able to improve immediately.
It promises to be an interesting quarter-final duel, because despite all alleged love affairs, the statistics come up with interesting things: Although Carreno Busta reached the quarter-finals twice at the Grand Slam Clay Court Mecca in Paris, there are two appearances in the semifinals of the US Open.
On the ATP tour, the 29-year-old from northern Spain was only able to celebrate one of his four tournament triumphs on the red underground. Carreno Busta was successful four years ago in Estoril, Portugal. So it seems like the time has come to improve on that record this week.