Favourites warm up for their Mallorca Championships debuts

Tsitsipas & Davidovich practises together at Mallorca Country Club

The main protagonists of the main draw of the Mallorca Championships stepped onto the grass of the Mallorca Country Club courts for the first time on Sunday for their first training session. Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alejandro Davidovich trained together on Court 3 of the Santa Ponça complex (Calvià) to prepare for their respective debuts.

The Greek, the reigning champion of the tournament, will meet his first opponent in his title defence on Monday. The ATP No. 5 will face the winner of the match between German Yannick Hanfmann and Argentine Pedro Cachín. Tsitsipas also takes to the court on Monday, alongside Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, against Mexican Santiago Gonzalez and Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin on Grandstand at 17:00.

The second seed awaits his opponent from the match between Li Tu and Pavel Kotov. The Australian comes from the qualifying round, where he won this Sunday against Kotov, who has entered the draw as a Lucky Loser, reediting the duel between the two (7-6[5], 6-2).

Davidovich expects a Mallorca Championshis "with surprises" during the week

Alejandro Davidovich attended the Media Day on Sunday. The Spaniard, who is playing the Mallorca Championships for the first time in his career, acknowledged that playing in his country "is a plus because we don't have so many opportunities and you can surround yourself with Spanish people. Although seeing a tournament in Spain on grass seems a little strange, we have the opportunity to prepare for Wimbledon and what better than doing it at home.

The No.33 considered that the current edition of the Mallorca Championshis "has an entertaining, fun draw and I think there may be a surprise or two during the week". On the favourites, Davidovich said that Tsitsipas "is a clear Top 10 player, he has been consolidated for many years, and then there are very good players like Shelton, who for me is one of the great promises of tennis, or Feliciano Lopez, who is very dangerous on grass".

For the Andalusian tennis player, the conditions of playing at the Mallorca Championships are familiar to him: "I come from Malaga and playing by the sea is like playing at home, although in Mallorca it's a bit different. I have come to the island on different occasions and it is true that you see a lot of tourists, people partying and, in the end, you have to be quite concentrated because, in the end, you have come here to compete".

Day 2

Sunday saw 19-year-old Abdullah Shelbayh (4-6, 7-6[5], 6-4 to Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech), Roman Safiullin (7-5, 4-6, 7-6[5] to Australian James McCabe), South African Lloyd Harris (6-7[1], 6-4, 6-1 to American Alex Michelsen) and Australian Li Tu (7-6[5], 6-2 to Pavel Kotov) advance to the final draw.

In the main draw, Frenchman Corentin Moutet (7-5, 6-4 to Australian Christopher O'Connell) and Argentine Guido Pella, who made a great comeback against American Marcos Giron (3-6, 6-2, 7-6[3]) in two hours and 20 minutes of play, made triumphant debuts. The match between Ilya Ivashka and eighth seeded Spaniard Roberto Carballés (4-6, 6-1 and postponed due to wet conditions on court) will be completed on Monday.