The finalist of the US Junior Open tennis championship Alexander Vassilev brought the surprise at the tournament from the "Challenger" series in Split, Croatia, which is of the category 50 and is on red courts.
The left-handed player from Sofia, who found a place in the main draw as a player from the top 10 in the boys' tournament, defeated the second-seeded George Lofthagen from Great Britain, number 222 in the world rankings, 7:5, 6:4. The Bulgarian is only 995 in the ATP ranking.
In the first part, the Briton led 5:3, but then Vassilev entered a series and won four consecutive games, and with that and the set.
In the next one, the 18-year-old cousin of Grigor Dimitrov pulled ahead 5:3, but was unable to close in the ninth game on his own serve. Immediately after, however, Vassilev took the opponent's serve and thus won his most significant victory among men to date.
He has already secured 4 points for the world ranking.
Before that, Dimitar Kuzmanov also started with a victory in Split.