Third-seeded Alex de Minaur of Australia produced his 300th tour-level win, rolling past native son Jurij Rodionov 6-4, 6-1 in the first round of the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, Austria.
Rodionov, a wild-card entry, hung with de Minaur through the first nine games but faltered at 4-5. He had one ad point to reach 5-5, but the Aussie came up with a winner and won the next two points to take the set. de Minaur earned two breaks in the second set to advance in 1 hour, 20 minutes.
In the final match of the day, fifth-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia dropped a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 decision to Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands. Griekspoor will face Brandon Nakashima in Round 2 as the American dispatched of Italy’s Luciano Darderi 6-2, 7-5. Eighth-seeded Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan knocked off Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo 6-4, 6-4, while Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi edged Aleksandar Kovacevic 7-5, 6-4.
Swiss Indoors Basel
A pair of seeded players, Czechia’s Jakub Mensik and Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, relied on first-set tiebreaker wins to get past their opening round foes in Basel, Switzerland.
Seventh-seeded Mensik wrapped up the competition on day one with a 2-hour, 29-minute 7-6 (1), 6-7 (7), 6-3 victory over Swiss wild card Henry Bernet, while No. 8 Davidovich Fokina prevailed 7-6 (2), 6-4 over Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego. Mensik broke Bernet in the second game of the deciding set and never looked back. Davidovich Fokina recorded 23 winners in his 2-hour, 4-minute match.
Jenson Brooksby pulled a slight upset with a 6-4, 6-3 win over France’s Alexandre Muller and Spain’s Jaume Munar ousted the host nation’s Remy Bertola 6-2, 6-4.
–Field Level Media
