Sebastian Korda, Great Britain’s Jacob Fearnley and Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic all pulled off upsets of seeded players in the first round at the Nordic Open in Stockholm, Sweden.
Korda finished decisively with a 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-3 triumph over seventh-seeded Australian Alexei Popyrin. Fearnley took 2 hours, 44 minutes to edge fifth-seeded Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands, 6-3, 6-7 (8), 7-6 (5), and Kecmanovic routed sixth-seeded Frenchman Alexandre Muller, 6-4, 6-1.
There were no breaks of serve in the third set between Fearnley and Griekspoor, but six lost service points by both players combined in the tiebreaker. Fearnley failed on two match points on his serve, but prevailed on his opponent’s fourth failure of the decider.
In the other opening-round match, the host nation’s Leo Borg, a wild-card entry ranked No. 622, thrilled the crowd with a 6-3, 6-4 triumph over Austria’s Sebastian Ofner. Borg is the son of tennis legend Bjorn Borg, an 11-time Grand Slam champion and former World No. 1.
European Open
Two Americans produced split results in the first round in Brussels, Belgium.
Marcus Giron needed only 1 hour, 18 minutes to knock off Italy’s Mattia Belluci, 6-3, 6-4, while Reilly Opelka dropped a 6-4, 6-4 decision to France’s Benjamin Bonzi.
Giron served up 10 aces and no double faults and won 82% (31 of 38) of his first-serve points.
Almaty Open
Both seeded players in action produced straight-set victories in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Canadian Gabriel Diallo, the seventh seed, cruised past Kazakhstan’s 17-year-old Amir Omarkhanov, 6-3, 6-1, while eighth-seeded Corentin Moutet of France held on for a 6-1, 7-6 (9) triumph over Australia’s Bernard Tomic.
The big-serving Diallo only produced five aces, but won 25 of 27 points on his first serve and 32 points of his 37 total serves overall. He did not face a break point in the match.
After breaking serve twice in the first set, Moutet could not convert on any of three break chances in the second set. Tomic earned five set points in the tiebreaker, including two while serving, but Moutet earned the 20th point of the breaker on the Aussie’s serve.
–Field Level Media
