Roberto Bautista Agut lost in the second round of the
Madrid Open qualifiers against Albert Ramos by 4-6, 6-3, 4-6. However, he is playing the main draw as a lucky loser and today he beat Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan in the first round by 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-1.
After the match, the Castellón ace said the following: "It was a difficult match, very hard, I think I did merit to win in two sets but I have gone to the third set finally. I'm happy, I finished the match with high level and intensity", in statements collected by Punto de Break.
Last year, Jan-Lennard Struff was also a lucky loser and reached the final, losing to Carlos Alcaraz 3-6, 6-3, 3-6. The former Top 10 in the world expects a similar outcome for him: "I hope the same thing happens to me, I would sign it if I could. At the moment I'm very happy with the match I played today, tomorrow I have a day to recover and work with my physio. I will try to be at 100% for Saturday's match with Karen (Khachanov), an opponent I already know, we played a very tough match here a year ago. I'm very motivated, eager to do well in Madrid".
Finally, Roberto Bautista has made clear his feelings about not having received an invitation to play the tournament, and he has not been shy at all when talking about it: "I got to play in the preliminaries, that's all. The truth is that I expected to have an invitation, but well, I have always been in a privileged position, listening to my colleagues complaining. I understand that the tournament is owned by IMG and favors its clients, I understand that they look after their own interests, but I don't agree that this tournament has huge amounts of money from sponsors and Spanish institutions and that this is of no use. That doesn't happen anywhere in the world, in any country, in any tournament I play in, we don't see anything like that. This only happens here".
