Schwartzman survives scare from teenager in Hamburg
hamburg — Second seed Diego Schwartzman recovered from a mid-match blip to beat Norwegian teenager Casper Ruud 6-4 2-6 6-2 in the opening round of the German Tennis Championships in Hamburg on Monday.
The 25-year-old Argentine, who reached the French Open quarterfinals last month, saved four break points in the final game to claim his 18th clay court match win of the season. Schwartzman will take the result as a confidence booster having lost four of his previous five matches on Tour. He will next face German qualifier Daniel Masur, who recorded his first Tour-level victory of the season by defeating Maximilian Marterer 6-3 6-4.
Defending champion Leonardo Mayer looked impressive as he raced past Spain’s Albert RamosVinolas 6-3 6-2 in 83 minutes. Fourth seed Damir Dzumhur, ranked 24th, struggled with his serve and was broken four times in a shock 6-2 6-4 defeat by Slovakian qualifier Jozef Kovalik.
It was Kovalik’s highest-ranked win since he overcame then world number six Marin Cilic at Chennai in January last year.
Meanwhile, in Nanchang, China, former Russia Fed Cup player Margarita Gasparyan earned her first WTA main-draw win in more than two years at the Jiangxi Open on Monday. Gasparyan beat former qualifier and former junior world No. 1 Shilin Xu 6-1, 6-4.
Gasparyan won WTA singles (1) and doubles (2) titles in 2015 and played for Russia in 2016 then fell off the main tour because of injuries. Other winners included No. 2-seeded Qiang Wang and No. 8 Xinyun Han, while the defeated included No. 4 Kurumi Nara and No. 7 Ying-Ying Duan.
In Gstaad, Jurgen Zopp of Estonia defeated Yannick Hanfmann of Germany 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) in the first round of Gstaad ATP event . In other matches, Felix Auger-Aliassime defeated Guido Andreozzi 6-3, 7-6 (7/3), Roberto Carballes Baena downed Guillermo GarciaLopez 7-6 (7/3), 6-2, Taro Daniel prevailed over Elias Ymer 7-6 (11/9), 7-5 and Jaume Munar beat Adrian Menendez-Maceiras (ESP) 6-1, 6-0 —