No. 1 seed Carlos Alcaraz dropped his first set but bounced back to defeat German wild card Nicola Kuhn 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (3) Tuesday during the first round of the Hamburg European Open in Germany.
The Spanish teen, ranked sixth in the world, won 47 of 63 first-service points (74.6 percent) to advance, even as Kuhn saved eight of the 10 break points he faced.
Three seeded players weren’t as fortunate. Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori upset No. 3 seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 7-5, 6-4. Russia’s Aslan Karatsev took down Georgian sixth seed Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4, 6-0, and Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands eked out a 7-6 (8), 7-5 win over Danish eighth seed Holger Rune.
Fourth seed Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain, Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina, Borna Coric of Croatia, Fabio Fognini of Italy, Filip Krajinovic of Serbia and qualifier Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia also won their matches Tuesday.
Swiss Open
Austria’s Dominic Thiem pulled out a 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7) win over French seventh seed Hugo Gaston in the first round at Gstaad.
Thiem, the 2020 U.S. Open champion, is still playing under a protected ranking as he returns to competition from a right wrist injury. He came back from down 5-3 in the third-set tiebreak and saved match point down 7-6 before finishing the job.
The only other seeded player in action Tuesday, sixth seed Cristian Garin of Chile, also lost. German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann defeated Garin 6-3, 6-4 to advance.
Other winners were France’s Richard Gasquet, Spain’s Jaume Munar, Swiss wild card Dominic Stricker, Chilean qualifier Nicolas Jarry, Peruvian qualifier Juan Pablo Varillas and Swedish qualifier Elias Ymer.
–Field Level Media