Watching the mighty serve of Goran Ivanisevic whistle by time-after-time is enough to make anyone lose their temper, and Pat Cash was no different on day one at the BlackRock Tour of Champions event in Istanbul.
Cash, who won Wimbledon in 1987, could do little to quell the avalanche of aces served by Ivanisevic, who won through 6-4, 6-2.
Ivanisevic broke early in both sets and didn’t face a single break point himself throughout the match. Cash persistently came to the net and although he volleyed well he found himself being passed almost every time by Ivanisevic from both the forehand and backhand wings. Cash eventually vented his frustrations at the umpire and a heckling spectator, but Ivanisevic showed no mercy and served out to win the match.
“I served well, it was fun and there was a good atmosphere,” said Ivanisevic afterwards.
“Pat lost it a little bit (with the umpire). To be honest, I will be really disappointed if I don’t get to the final. I play Andrei Chesnokov tomorrow and I never lost to him when we played on the ATP tour. Then with Thomas (Muster) you never know but if I serve like this I should be ok.”
Istanbul Event Profile | Order of Play
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The Croatian also paid tribute to the organisers of the Turkcell Legends Cup, who are staging the event for the first time.
“The club here is great, it’s really nice and the centre court is lovely. I’ve been to Istanbul twice already and there’s a lot of culture and a lot of interesting things to see. Tonight we have a boat ride and hopefully I will see something of the city,” he said.
Elsewhere, Cedric Pioline scored a surprise 4-6, 7-5, 10-7 (Champions’ Tie Break) win over last year’s dominant player on the BlackRock Tour of Champions - Sergi Bruguera. Pioline struggled to deal with Bruguera’s spin in the first set but mixed up his play with drop shots and slices in the second. The set went with serve until Pioline broke at 6-5 to take the match to a champions’ tie break. Pioline raced to a 4-0 lead in the decider but Bruguera fought back to 7-7 before Pioline produced a couple of big serves to take the match.
The 1995 French Open champion Thomas Muster was another day one winner. The Austrian won a high quality match played almost entirely from the baseline against Russia’s Andrei Cesnokov. In sweltering conditions with temperatures touching 40 degrees celcius, Muster won 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 12-10 (Champions' Tie-break)
All players in each group will play each other over the first three days, and the players finishing top of each group will meet each other in the final. Those finishing second in each group will contest the 3rd/4th place play-off.
Matches are played over the best of three sets, with a Champions’ Tie-break (first to 10 points with a clear advantage of two) the winner.
The BlackRock Tour of Champions Set For Thrilling Istanbul Debut
