Sebastian Baez breezes into second round on busy day in Bucharest | ATP Tour

Bucharest

Baez breezes, Molcan & Sakellaridis earn two wins every on busy day in Bucharest

Seeds Navone, Van de Zandschulp advance at ATP 250

March 31, 2026

Sebastian Baez wasted little time getting right down to enterprise as soon as the Bucharest skies lastly cleared on the Tiriac Open presented by UniCredit Bank.

With persistent rain having delayed the beginning of main-draw motion within the Romanian capital by a day, Baez headlined a stacked Tuesday schedule in type on the clay-court ATP 250. The fifth-seeded Argentine, a finalist in Bucharest a 12 months in the past, powered previous Vilius Gaubas 6-3, 6-1 in simply 80 minutes.

Medical from Baez 🫡

Final 12 months’s finalist opens his Bucharest marketing campaign with a dominant 6-1, 6-3 victory over Gaubas #TiriacOpen2026 pic.twitter.com/NSq6PvwnUi

— ATP Tour (@atptour) March 31, 2026

“I’m blissful to be again, to be right here on this courtroom the place I’ve good recollections, and a few not the very best,” stated Baez. “In any case, I wish to play right here with the group, and naturally I’m proud of my degree immediately. I do know him. It’s the primary time we performed, however he’s a great participant with a great future, so all the very best to him and naturally I’m blissful to be within the subsequent spherical.”

Baez saved all 5 break factors he confronted in his maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head conflict with the 21-year-old Lithuanian Gaubas. The No. 50 participant within the PIF ATP Rankings will subsequent face Frenchman Titouan Droguet, who defeated former High 10 star Roberto Bautista Agut 6-1, 1-6, 6-1.

Baez and Gaubas had earlier been made to attend somewhat longer for his or her encounter after Damir Dzumhur and Filip Cristian Jianu performed out a two-hour, 41-minute thriller on Central Courtroom.

Residence wild card Jianu, the World No. 246, threatened a outstanding comeback in a ultimate set throughout which his motion was severely hampered by cramp. He rallied from 0-3 to serve for the match at 6-5, however Dzumhur discovered a late surge to finally prevail 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(4) and ebook a second-round appointment with fourth seed Nuno Borges.

In the meantime, each Alex Molcan and Stefanos Sakellaridis loved a double style of victory on Tuesday, after they every accomplished a rain-delayed final-round qualifying win earlier than additionally claiming a main-draw triumph.

Molcan had led Jay Clarke 4-1 in a single day and went on to avoid wasting a match level earlier than prevailing 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(4) to qualify for the primary draw. The previous High 50 star then returned to courtroom within the night to down Matteo Arnaldi 6-3, 6-1 in his first-round match. Molcan, who’s making his Bucharest debut this 12 months, will subsequent tackle high seed Gabriel Diallo.

Sakellaridis turned a 5-2 in a single day lead in his ultimate qualifying match towards Dimitar Kuzmanov right into a 6-3, 7-6(6) victory, earlier than later easing previous Jan Choinski for a second-round spot. The Greek’s 6-3, 6-4 triumph towards Choinski was his first tour-level win exterior of Davis Cup play since he memorably upset Zizou Bergs as an 803-ranked 18-year-old on the 2023 United Cup.

Third seed Fabian Marozsan shall be Sakellaridis’ subsequent opponent in Bucharest, the place seventh seed Mariano Navone, eighth seed Botic van de Zandschulp and Alexander Shevchenko have been among the many different winners from the 12 first-round matches on Tuesday’s schedule. Navone downed Christopher O’Connell 6-4, 7-6(8), Van de Zandschulp defeated Francesco Maestrelli 6-3, 6-2 and Shevchenko downed wild card Radu David Turcanu 6-2, 6-4.