Adam Walton has enjoyed one of his best wins of a difficult season, defeating young Spanish hot-shot Martin Landaluce in front of his home fans at the Madrid Open.
It was just the tonic the Australian challenge at the prestigious clay-court event in the Caja Magica required after a sequence of dispiriting losses had continued with Alexei Popyrin getting knocked out of the ATP Masters 1000 event earlier on Thursday.
Like Popyrin, Walton has found wins difficult to come by this year, with his ranking having fallen from a career-high 75 last October to No.117 and the 20-year-old Landaluce, who made the Miami quarters last month and has just broken into the top 100, looked to pose a real test.
