Croatian tennis has waited eight years for a main draw qualifier at the ATP tournament in Umag, the bad streak was ended by Joško Topić, in a Croatian last round duel against Duje Kekez (3:6, 7:6(2), 6:4). At age 29, during his best career season he obtained his first ATP Tour performance.
"The last round match against Kekez was extremely difficult,
I was on the verge of defeat, being one set behind and a ball away
from 3:5 in the second set. I managed to get myself out of trouble
and build up a decisive lead of 5:1 in the final set. That's when
both of my legs started to cramp up, but I managed to power through
the pain and win", said Joško whose first round match will be
the tournament eight seed, the excellent Carlos Berlocq from
Argentina, who won the first ATP title in his career not long ago
in Bastad.
"Berlocq is the absolute favorite, and I hope I'll recover
before the match and play as good as possible on my ATP debut" said
Joško. It's interesting that he has no defeats in Umag so far this
year, which makes the story quite interesting. "It's true, I've won
all matches that I played in Umag. Here on the Istrian Riviera I
won a doubles tournament, and won the first round of Futures, due
to the rain the second round had to be played in Poreč where I
lost. Later, also due to the rain, a match that was supposed to be
in Poreč was moved to Umag where I won. Along with the three
qualifying rounds I won in Umag I'm up to nine wins, ha, ha",
said Joško who won his first Futures title in 2013, and after his
performance in Umag this Drniš native, living in Zagreb since
1988., will reach his best career ranking, around 550 on the ATP
list.
"I played good tennis and good matches before, but I always
needed a little bit more to achieve real results. This year
everything seems to have clicked into place. Best season of my
career…"
