It has taken a few attempts, but a change in tactics has finally worked for fourth seed Marc Polmans after defeating fellow Australian James Duckworth for the first time in their second round match at the Burnie International on Tuesday.
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In a game that ebbed and flowed, Polmans advanced to a third-round encounter with Germany’s Sebastian Fanselow after a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory.
The 21-year-old Victorian broke Duckworth’s powerful serve five times and believed that was the key to the win.
“I just had to try my best to get his serve back, and I was changing up where I was standing on his serve today to give him a few different looks,” Polmans said
“I feel I did a better job at getting some returns back and finding a way to break his serve, which I usually struggle to do.”
The other headline act on a strong day for the Australian men was the victory by Hobart’s Harry Bourchier over Spanish third seed, Pedro Martinez.
An upset was firmly on the cards after Bourchier took the first set 6-3, but Martinez appeared to wrestle back control with a 6-1 demolition of the Tasmanian in the second set.
The third set was far tighter affair, with both players breaking serve before Bourchier found a way to get hold of the Martinez serve again to win 7-5.
Four other Australian men progressed on Tuesday, with first round encounters seeing wildcard Luke Saville defeating France’s Sadio Doumbia 7-5, 6-2, Christopher O’Connell knocking out China’s Di Wu 7-6, 7-6, and Jeremy Beale moving on after Bradley Mousley retired with a knee injury while Beale led 7-6, 3-1.
Sydney’s Max Purcell is through to the third round as he proved too strong for Austrian sixth seed Sebastian Ofner 7-6, 6-2, while Victorian Jacob Grills fell to Egyptian eighth seed Mohamed Safwat 6-4, 6-2.
Two of the three seeds in the women’s draw have advanced after the first round of games.
Spanish seventh seed Georgina Garcia-Perez had the easiest path, downing Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-1, 6-4 in a match lasting 77 minutes on court one.
Also advancing was Bulgarian eighth seed Viktoriya Tomova, who was made to work hard for her berth in the second round by Belgium’s Maryna Zanevska before winning 6-4, 7-5.
Arguably the most entertaining game of the day was the three-set affair between unseeded pair Ekaterine Gorgodze from Georgia and Anna Zaja from Germany.
The match appeared set for a short day at the office for Gorgodze, who needed only 25 minutes to overwhelm her opponent with her strong ground game and win the first set 6-1.
Zaja finally found her range in the second set, and needed just the one break point opportunity to take it 6-3 level the game.
Gorgodze broke early in the third set to establish a 3-0 lead, but Zaja hit back to trail 4-3 before the Georgian broke again and then served out the game to triumph 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in one hour and 44 minutes.