38-year-old captain of the Ukrainian women's tennis team Ilya Marchenko (1390) achieved victory in the first round of the ITF M25 tournament in Qian Dao, China, defeating local player Zhang Minghui (2147).
The match lasted 3 hours and 33 minutes, concluding with a score of 7:6(5), 6:7(5), 6:4.
This marks Marchenko's first competition since February of this year.
During the match, Marchenko served 6 aces, committed 10 double faults, and made 3 breaks. His opponent recorded 6 aces, 4 service errors, and 2 breaks.
The two players had not faced each other before. In the next round, Marchenko will compete against the fourth seed, Uzbek Sergey Fomin (462).