Andy Murray launched his grass-court season successfully on Tuesday, defeating Australian qualifier Christopher O’Connell 6-4, 6-3 in opening round of the BOSS Open in Stuttgart, Germany.
Murray, the former World No. 1, dropped the first three games on the match but stormed back to win in 95 minutes, moving his record on grass to 111-23. He skipped much of the clay-court season to prepare for Wimbledon, which he won in 2013 and 2016.
In the next round, he will face seventh seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, who defeated American Denis Kudla 7-6 (3), 7-5.
In other action, Arthur Rinderknech ousted eighth seed Ugo Humbert 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 in an all-French battle. Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics, Dominic Stephan Stricker of Switzerland and Australia’s Nick Kyrgios all advanced.
Libema Open
Fifth-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia defeated Alejandro Tabilo of Chile 6-3, 6-3 to advance in the ATP 250 grass-court event in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
He was the only seeded player in action on Tuesday.
Other winners were Ilya Ivashka of Belarus, American Sam Querrey, Tim van Rijthoven of the Netherlands and defending champion Adrian Mannarino of France.
The tournament’s top seeds, No. 1 Daniil Medvedev of Russia and No. 2 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, are in action in the Round of 16 on Wednesday.
–Field Level Media