GENOVA, September 8, 2015

On Tuesday night, Nicolas Almagro celebrated a winning return to the ATP Challenger Tour, playing his first match at this level since 2006. In his opening round match at the € 106,500 AON Open Challenger in Genova, the 30-year-old former world number 9 from Spain defeated Jan Satral in front of fully packed stands, winning 6-4, 6-4. Almagro lost his service only once and converted three of his own ten break points to seal victory in one hour and 18 minutes.

Two seeded players did not survive the first round on Tuesday. Fourth favourite Nikoloz Basilashvili lost to Tomislav Brkic, 2-6, 6-4, 4-6. The latter served seven aces and capitalized on five of his 14 break points to close the match after one hour and 47 minutes.

First round match: Brkic vs Basilashvili (photo: AON Challenger Open)

Brkic will face Adam Pavlasek next. The 20-year-old Czech defeated Italian wild card Andrea Basso, winning 7-5, 6-2 in one hour and 24 minutes.

Yann Marti knocked-off sixth seed Dusan Lajovic, coming back from a set down 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. The world number 365 from Switzerland converted seven of his 16 break point chances to seal victory in two hours and three minutes. Marti will take on Andrej Golubev in the second round.

The tournament’s top-seeds Albert Ramos-Viῆolas and Robin Haase will step into action on Wednesday.