The World Today
Spanish tennis player Jaume Munar lost this Thursday to Hungarian Márton Fucsovics (5-7 and 3-6) in the quarterfinals of the Winston-Salem Tournament, ATP 250 category, and now faces the US Open, the last Grand Slam of the season, which is played on hard courts.
Roberto Bautista's executioner in the round of 16 also defeated Munar in the last eight. The Hungarian defeated the Balearic native in 1 hour and 41 minutes in a match that started evenly until the fifth game of the first set, when Munar faltered with his serve and Fucsovics took advantage to take the lead.
This break of advantage reached 4-5, at which point the world number 94 had a serve to win the set, but the Spaniard raised his level and broke his serve to level the set. Despite this, the joy was short-lived for the third-ranked Spaniard, who saw Fucsovics break him at love in the next game, closing out the set with his serve, this time without hesitation.
The second set was marked by breaks, with as many as six in just nine games played. Munar started off a double break down at 0-3 at the outset, but rallied to win the next three games to get back into the match. However, the seventh game of the set hurt him, as he had two points to take the lead, but ended up losing his serve again.
The Hungarian took advantage of the world number 46's hesitation and made it 3-5, closing the match again on return, with the first opportunity he had on the Spaniard's serve.
Munar thus bids farewell to the U.S. 250-class tournament to focus on the U.S. Open, which begins next week, where he will debut against a player from the qualifying round.
