Fifth seed Frances Tiafoe rebounded from a tough first set to defeat Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic 2-6, 7-5, 6-0 Monday in the first round of the Millennium Estoril Open in Estoril, Portugal.
Tiafoe lost his serve in the opening game of the match and quickly slipped behind. But after eking out a close win in the second set, the American dominated the final set — going 3-for-3 on break point opportunities and saving all three break points he faced.
Next, Tiafoe will face Portuguese wild card Nuno Borges, who led 6-4, 3-0 Monday when Spanish opponent Pablo Andujar retired.
Spanish qualifier Bernaber Zapata Miralles defeated Argentina’s Federico Coria 6-4, 6-3, and South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon took down France’s Benoit Paire 6-4, 7-5. Kwon saved 12 of 13 break points in that match, outdoing Paire’s 9-of-12 mark.
BMW Open
Daniel Altmaier outlasted wild card Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-1 in two hours and 25 minutes to win an all-German first-round battle at Munich.
Altmaier out-aced Kohlschreiber 6-3 and saved nine of 12 break points. He fell behind 2-0 in the first-set tiebreaker, pulled ahead 4-2 and held on to win after his opponent tied him 4-4 and 5-5.
The only seeded player to hit the court Monday was No. 7 seed Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia, who beat German wild card Max Hans Rehberg 6-2, 6-3.
Danish wild card Holger Rune topped Czech qualifier Jiri Lehecka 7-6 (4), 6-3. Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland defeated Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan 7-6 (5), 7-5, and Alex Molcan beat fellow Slovakian Norbert Gombos 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7), coming through in the third-set tiebreaker on his third match point.
–Field Level Media