Bastl falls in second round of Mallorca Open

Switzerland's George Bastl has been knocked out of the $500,000 ATP tennis tournament in Mallorca. He was easily defeated in the second round by Sweden's Mikael Tillström.

Bastl hardly stood a chance against Tillström, losing 6-4, 6-2. He’d cruised through to the second round after defeating Argentina’s Martin Garcia, but failed to repeat his strong performance against the 69th-seeded Tillström.

His defeat follows that of fellow compatriot, Marc Rosset, who was knocked out of the BMW Open by Brazil’s Fernando Meligeni on Tuesday.

Attention is now focused on Switzerland’s women players, Martina Hingis and Patty Schnyder, who are scheduled to compete in the WTA tour event in Hamburg.

Hingis will be hoping to repeat earlier successes of her career, when she steps out on the court. In 1998, she won her first-ever European clay court title in Hamburg. The German city was also the scene of Hingis’s first appearance in a singles final back in 1995. With a bye into the second round, the Swiss top seed is in pursuit of the world number one spot, which she recently lost to her American rival, Lindsay Davenport.

Switzerland’s second-seed, Patty Schnyder, is facing one of the tournament’s qualifiers in her first round match.

swissinfo with agencies