Dusan Lajovic (2) meets Bernabe Zapata Miralles in the second round of the 2021 Croatia Open on Thursday, July 22nd, 2021.
Will we see the unknown Bernabe Zapata Miralles get a huge win for his career and confidence here in Croatia, or will Dusan Lajovic take him to school with his amazing flamboyant and powerful game, especially in clay court conditions.
Bernabe Zapata Miralles has been in very strong form so far in his only match this week, beating the very solid clay courter which is Pablo Cuevas, coming back from a set down to win 4-6/6-2/6-4. Pablo Cuevas was down very hard in the third set, but eventually got things back on serve. However, Bernabe maintained his composure and played the same way he did for the majority of the match to finally get the break back and cause the upset to make his way to the second round here in Croatia where he will look to cause an even bigger upset now.
Dusan Lajovic has not been at his best this year, but we all know what he can achieve when his game is even 70 – 80% of what it can be, especially on clay. Dusan has a beautiful powerful and fast game, with an amazing one-handed backhand which can hit any spot on the court. Dusan will know that with his poor form this year, he needs to go far in some of the next few tournaments to gain some momentum and confidence, and it will just continue to improve if this happens. He needs to prevent Bernabe from causing the upset because that would hurt his year even more.
This is going to be the 1st meeting between both players, and I see this being a tight match. Obviously Dusan is the better player on paper hands down. However, Bernabe was able to beat Pablo Cuevas who is very tough to beat in the early rounds of these smaller ATP 250 tournaments. Dusan Lajovic will still come through this at the end, but Bernabe will push him to his limits and make him work very hard to get himself into the quarter finals in Croatia.