Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain took down No. 9 seed Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia 7-6 (9), 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5) in three hours and 16 minutes in first-round action at the Sofia Open on Tuesday in Bulgaria.
Bautista Agut saved three set points in the first-set tiebreaker at 5-6, 6-7 and 7-8 before pushing ahead and winning on his second set point. He prevailed in a tight tiebreaker in the third set and finished the evenly played match having won 129 total points to Kecmanovic’s 126.
No. 6 seed Max Purcell beat fellow Australian Rinky Hijikata 6-3, 6-3. No. 7 seed Sebastian Ofner of Austria got past Ukraine’s Vitaliy Sachko 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, while eighth seed Marton Fucsovics of Hungary beat French qualifier Terence Atmane 7-6 (4), 6-3.
Other winners Tuesday included Jack Draper and Billy Harris of Great Britain, Turkish wild card Cem Ilkel, Russia’s Pavel Kotov, Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan, Australia’s Christopher O’Connell, Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Austrian Jurij Rodionov.
Moselle Open
No. 4 seed Ugo Humbert battled past Austria’s Dominic Thiem 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals in Metz, France.
Humbert smashed 11 aces and won 48 of his 57 first-service points (84.2 percent) while saving four of six break points he faced to get past the former world No. 3. His next opponent will be countryman Harold Mayot, a qualifier who outlasted fellow Frenchman Gregoire Barrere 7-6 (2), 2-6, 7-6 (5).
No. 3 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia is also into the quarters after defeating Constant Lestienne of France 6-4, 6-4.
In Round of 32 action, Hungarian lucky loser Mate Valkusz upset No. 9 seed Daniel Altmaier of Germany 6-2, 6-2. Italian wild card Fabio Fognini won two tiebreakers to beat Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil 7-6 (3), 7-6 (9), and Jordan’s Abdullah Shelbayh beat France’s Hugo Gaston 7-6 (5), 6-2.
–Field Level Media