Bulgarian national team member for the Davis Cup, Iliyan Radulov, has reached the quarterfinals of the singles event at the clay court tournament in Vic, Spain, which has a prize fund of $30,000. The 20-year-old, who won the title in Sabadell last week, showed exceptional character and defeated the host country's fifth-ranked player, Alex Martí Pucholras, with scores of 7-5, 4-6, 7-5. The match lasted three hours and seven minutes.
Radulov trailed 2-5 in the decisive third set but made a remarkable comeback with five consecutive games. In the final five games, the Bulgarian dominated completely, scoring 21 points against only 8 for his opponent.
This victory marks Radulov's ninth consecutive win, and he will face the second-ranked player, Oriol Roca Batalla (Spain), in the quarterfinals.
Earlier today, another Bulgarian national team member, Ivan Ivanov, also advanced to the quarterfinals. The 17-year-old Wimbledon and US Open junior champion defeated Jamie McKenzie (Germany) with scores of 6-3, 6-3. McKenzie had won the final against Dimitar Kisimov in the junior tournament in Offenbach last weekend.
Ivanov will face the eighth-ranked player, Sergi Pérez Contreiras (Spain), for a spot in the semifinals. If both Radulov and Ivanov win their quarterfinal matches, they will face each other in the semifinals.
Iliyan Radulov and Ivan Ivanov are showing the world the talent coming out of Bulgaria! This is exactly what we needed to see from our young stars. Can their momentum continue through the semifinals?