There are no more Croatian players in the singles competition at the 24th Vegeta Croatia Open. All four of them lost on Tuesday in the opening round: Mate Pavic, Antonio Veic, Josko Topic and Borna Coric. Best chance to advance had youngest of them, 16-years old Coric, even though he played against eight-seeded Argentinean Horacio Zeballos.

Coric was 7:6, 3:0 up, with two break points to increase the lead to 4:0 and surely there were many in the stands thinking that Coric is very likely going to be winner of the match. But Zeballos, winner against Spaniard Rafael Nadal earlier this year in Vina del Mar final, recovered right on time. Coric won only one game until the end of the match with Zeballos winning by 6:7 (5), 6:4, 6:0.

"Against such a player you have to convert opportunities you have or you will lose the match. I had two chances in the second set and if I had those converted match would be over. But what I experienced and what I am happy about is that I was able to find out how big is the tennis difference between top 50 player and me at this moment. It is rather small. This was big experience for me and this is exactly what Goran Ivanisevic told me after the match", Coric said.

Mate Pavic had decent chance against Frenchman Gael Monfils, serving at 5:4 in the first set. Then he lost eight games in a row and Monfils won his fi rst-ever match in Umag.

"He choked a bit when he served for set. From that point on I started to play better and had no problems to fi nish the match", Monfils said after 7:5, 6:2 victory.

Antonio Veić held three consecutive set points in the first set tie-breaker (6-3) against Viktor Toricki from Serbia, but failed to convert and paid the price afterwards.

Three seeded players - Tommy Robredo, Martin Klizan and Carlos Berlocq - lost total of nine games on Tuesday and the only seeded player who lost was German Florian Mayer. In tense match on the Grandstand he was beaten by Slovenian qualifyer Blaz Kavcic. Another threee qualifi ers, Boy Westerhof, Dusan Lajovic and Josko Topic, failed to win a set.