Fifth-seeded Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany saved five match points in a 1-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory over Portugal’s Joao Sousa in first-round action Tuesday at the Sardegna Open in Cagliari, Italy.
Struff overcame a 5-2 deficit in the deciding set and will face British qualifier Liam Broady, a 6-1, 6-3 winner against Switzerland’s Marc-Andrea Huesler.
Sixth-seeded Australian John Millman needed three hours and 15 minutes to put away Argentina’s Federico Coria, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-3. Other winners included 19-year-old Italian Lorenzo Musetti, who crushed Austria’s Dennis Novak 6-0, 6-1 in 53 minutes. Also advancing to the second round were Slovakia’s Jozef Kovalik and Andrej Martin, Italy’s Marco Cecchinato and France’s Gilles Simon.
Andalucia Open
Fifth-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain rallied for a 6-7 (1), 6-2, 6-2 first-round win over Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Marbella, Spain.
Fellow Spaniard and No. 6 seed Feliciano Lopez had an easier time, firing 12 aces and saving all four break points in a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Japan’s Taro Daniel. Lopez next faces 17-year-old countryman Carlos Alcaraz, who defeated Serbia’s Nikola Milojevic 7-6 (3), 6-3.
Other first-round winners included Argentina’s Facundo Bagnis, Ilya Ivashka of Belarus, Gianluca Mager of Italy and Spain’s Jaume Munar and Mario Vilella Martinez.
–Field Level Media
