For the first time in 28 years, an Israeli derby was held today (Monday), when Yishai Oliel and Idan Leshem met in the first round of the ATP250 WATERGEN OPEN in Tel Aviv, where the latter won 3:6, 2:6 and advanced to the round of 16.
There he continued the momentum from last week, when following the achievement, he will gain 20 ranking points, which will put him in the top 400 in the world and will win a cash prize of $16,600.
In the next stage, veteran Canadian Vashak Pospishil, who entered the main draw as a lucky loser, awaits him.
As a reminder, the 22-year-old Oliel, Israel's champion for the past two years, ranked 383 in the world, received a free ticket to the main draw, while Leshem (446 in the world), had to go through two qualifying rounds, in order to reach the opening round of the ATP main draw for the second time in his career like his opponent .
In terms of statistics, for the two, this is the third meeting ever against each other, with Oliel winning twice, including the last meeting held last year in Astana, Kazakhstan in the second round.
Yishai Oliel.
Not his evening, photo: Oren Aharoni
As mentioned, this is the first time since 1994 that a blue-white derby has been held, when it happened at the Tel Aviv tournament, when Yoni Ehrlich, who was playing singles, defeated Eil Ehrlich in the opening round 3:6, 6:3, 4:6, but surrendered in the next game 6: 0, 6:0 to the French Fabrice Santoro.
opal.
Tremendous tennis, photo: Oren Aharoni
Oliel
Not as expected, photo: Oren Aharoni
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