On the first day of the main draw of the Erste Bank Open one of two Austrians made it into the second round. While Dennis Novak had to bow to Kevin Anderson in three sets, 21-year old Jurij Rodionov was responsible for the first big upset of the tournament, beating Denis Shapovalov, the world’s number 12 and number 8 of the tournament 6-4, 7-5. Rodionov entered the tournament as number 153 in the world.
And in the beginning it looked like everything was going as predetermined by the world rankings. Shapovalov got an early break and looked to be cruising to win the first set. But backed by the great audience, Rodionov first got the rebreak and then finished the first set with yet another break. Though he had some help there as Shapovalov gave the set to the Austrian with a double fault.
The second set got to 6-5 Rodionov without any break before things unfolded very similar to the first set: this time, Shapovalov served two double faults to hand Rodionov a 0-40 and thus three match points. The Austrian converted the first one to advance to the second round of the Erste Bank Open in his first participation in the main draw here in Vienna.