Germany’s Daniel Altmaier rallied for a 1-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory against Denmark’s Holger Rune in first-round action Wednesday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.
Altmaier trailed 4-3 in the deciding set before sweeping the last three games, two on his own serve, to finish in 2 hours and 15 minutes. He converted his only break point of the match in the ninth game to take the lead.
“There were a couple of points where I really had to fight,” Altmaier said, pointing out his spectacular backhand pass to set up match point. “I’ve been working on that the past few days. My confidence hasn’t been the highest. It paid off in a really special moment today.”
Rune, who returned to competition last month after rupturing his Achilles last October, had more winners (34 to 29) and fewer unforced errors (29 to 31).
Altmaier’s opponent in the second round of the ATP 1000 tournament will be World No. 4 and No. 3 seed Ben Shelton. Altmaier won their only previous meeting earlier this year on clay in Hamburg.
Fellow German Yannick Hanfmann also advanced with a marathon 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (7) win against Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak in 3 hours and 13 minutes.
Three Frenchmen moved on, with Arthur Gea rallying for a 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-2 win against Portugal’s Jaime Faria and Quentin Halys ousting Hong Kong’s Coleman Wong 6-4, 7-6 (5). Adrian Mannarino was leading 6-3, 2-2 when Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili had to retire.
Wednesday’s other winners included a pair of wild-card entries from China. Yibing Wu defeated Michael Zheng 6-3, 7-6 (6) and Yi Zhou outlasted Italian qualifier Mattia Bellucci 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4) in 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Wu will face No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany in the second round.
Italy’s Matteo Berrettini posted a 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-4 comeback victory against Aleksander Kovacevic. Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic also needed three sets to put away China’s Zhizhen Zhang 1-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2. Slovakia’s Alex Molcan also went the distance for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Italy’s Federico Cina.
Four others advanced in straight sets. Britain’s Arthur Fery defeated Croatia’s Marin Cilic 7-6 (2), 6-1; Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic beat Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro 6-2, 6-4; Russia’s Roman Safiullin earned a 7-5, 6-3 win over Australia’s Rinky Hijikata; and Japan’s Rei Sakamoto ousted Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti 6-3, 7-5.
–Field Level Media
