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The Spaniard still without a clay challenger win in the last two years

Both were the best ranked players in the qualifiers. Panfil strolled through without a single lost set, while the Spaniard entered as the lucky loser. The player on his home court is defending his last year's second round and is more successful in challengers

Panfil has been a professional tennis player for over 10 years but ranked among the top 300 for only a short time. It was four years ago, after which his career plummeted. He is currently on the rise again. However, we are not witnessing some sort of spectacular rise and at the age of 25 he is still a futures player prone to swoops. Four months ago he reached the quarter finals on a challenger in the Czech Repulic, repeating the same on his home court in Poznan. In both cases he defeated several higher ranked players than himself.

The Polish player received a wild card for participation in the tournament here and proved worthy of it by crossing into the second round. Yet, this time some other countrymen of his got the advantage. He went through qualifications and, judging by the score, he won't be troubled by exhaustion. In the first round he played against an amateur and won in an incredible 29 minutes. Next he beat one of his countrymen, losing only 3 games which had to make the sixteen year-old opponent pretty happy. Come last round he had a bit more work to do. Bradaric missed all five break points in the first set and Panfil won the tie-break, leaving the Croatian without a single game in the second set.


Checa Calvo is 28 and is also mainly a futures player. His best performances are also dating back to 2009, currently struggling to get back among the top 300. The Spaniard has had good results on Spanish futures lately and in both competitions. Two weeks ago he triumphed on a tournament where his opponent in the finals was a player ranked outside top 450. Futures have considerably weaker competitors than the ones participating in challengers so he managed to win only six games against Baluda in Sevilla. The Russian is known for is love of hardcourt.


The Spaniard failed to prove his reputation here as well. Although being the first qualifications seed, he was defeated in the last round. He entered the draw as the lucky loser only because Bellucci had to withdraw from further competition due to his Davis Cup obligations. He could have faced problems as early as in the second round when the 18 year old Pole earned eight break points. Luckily for him, he managed to save them all. The opportunity wasn't missed by the Croatian Mate Delic. The young Croat used two out of three break points and won in two sets.


It is difficult to state with certainty that the Spaniard didn't calculate with these results. As the first seed he was certain there was a place for him in the main draw should someone withdraw. Be it as it may, he hasn't had a single challenger win on clay for the last two seasons, while Panfil appeared in two quarter finals and had a couple of surprising wins.  
           

Panfil has lately been playing above his ranking. He has two challenger quarterfinals behind him, and he won against Gojowczyk and younger Melzer on his last home tournament. They are far better players than the Spaniard he is facing today. He was very convincing in the qualifiers for this tournament and he seems to be full of confidence because he is playing better than he did in the first half of the season. Checa-Calvo doesn't have a challenger win on clay in the last two seasons. He probably did some calculations here in the last round of the qualifiers, because he knew he has a secured entry as a lucky loser, but that is not very important. His latest defeats on this type of challengers clearly suggest that he lacks the game for this level, and he also has problems with left-handed players like Panfil. Against them he has 1-4 ratio on challengers, and he also has negative ratio on the futures (11-18) where the competition is significantly weaker. Last year Panfil made it to the second round here. Everything is pointing to home player's win, and he is on a roll.