Spoiler:
Roberto Bautista Agut held off some late resistance from Taro Daniel to register a straight-sets opening win at the Mallorca Championships on Monday and set a potential second-round blockbuster against Nick Kyrgios at the ATP 250 event.
The fifth seed was broken when serving for the match in the second set before he reeled off six consecutive points in the tie-break to recover a 1/4 deficit and prevail 6-4, 7-6(4) against Daniel in Spain.
Bautista Agut reached the quarter-finals in the inaugural edition of the Mallorca event in 2021, when he fell to eventual finalist Sam Querrey. Standing in his way of matching that run this year will be Kyrgios or Laslo Djere, who play their first-round match on Tuesday.
The Spaniard is looking to build on plenty of past success on grass — he won the first of his 10 tour-level titles on the surface at ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2014 and reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 2019.
The fifth seed was broken when serving for the match in the second set before he reeled off six consecutive points in the tie-break to recover a 1/4 deficit and prevail 6-4, 7-6(4) against Daniel in Spain.
Bautista Agut reached the quarter-finals in the inaugural edition of the Mallorca event in 2021, when he fell to eventual finalist Sam Querrey. Standing in his way of matching that run this year will be Kyrgios or Laslo Djere, who play their first-round match on Tuesday.
The Spaniard is looking to build on plenty of past success on grass — he won the first of his 10 tour-level titles on the surface at ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2014 and reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 2019.