David Goffin took a fairly smooth win over Frenchman Quentin Halys in his first match at the European Open. Alexander Blockx was able to win from his good friend Gilles-Arnaud Bailly in a hard-fought Belgian duel. For Gauthier Onclin, the tournament in Antwerp is over after losing in the singles and doubles.
David Goffin needed some time to get up to speed against Halys, but after a 0-3 deficit and some strong services from the Frenchman, he had enough: he raced through to 6-4 set win. In the second set, Goffin did get off to a strong start: in no time it became 4-0. Goffin gave Halys no more time to catch his breath and soon it was 6-1. “This is an important tournament for me. I have been working towards this and with the support of the Belgian public I will try to get far this week”, said Goffin after his win.
Good friends Blockx and Bailly looked each other in the eye at Center Court for a place in the main table. After a balanced start, Bailly tried to put Blockx under pressure, but did not bend the Antwerp player. Blockx did manage to get through Bailly’s serve in the next game. He maintained the lead and finished it off handsomely with an ace on his first set point: 6-4.
Same pattern of play in the second set: for a long time, there was balance, but suddenly there was Blockx’ break in the eleventh game and again he did not let go: on his own serve Blockx finished the match out: 7-5. Blockx will take on German player Hanfmann tomorrow.
It was matchday for Gauthier Onclin: first he went out in singles against Mpetschi Perricard. In the first set, Onclin undid an early break, but at the end of the set he was again in pursuit. It eventually became 4-6 in the first set. The Frenchman continued that momentum in set two against our compatriot: 2-6. The doubles match on Michael Geerts’ side did not bring any consolation either, although the Belgians sold their skin extremely expensive against Bublik/Shevchenko: 6-7(4) in the first set, 6-4 after a fine second set. In the supertiebreak, Geerts and Onclin had two chances to turn the match to their advantage, but Bublik and Shevchenko fought back. The Belgians narrowly lost 10-12.
