ATP Western & Southern Open: Dimitrov celebrates opening victory - Evans beats Rublev
Grigor Dimitrov celebrated a solid opening win at the ATP Masters 1000 in Cincinnati / New York on Sunday. While the Bulgarian Ugo Humbert (France) defeated 6: 3, 6: 4, Daniel Evans (Great Britain) took the Russian Andrey Rublev out of the tournament.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Aug 24, 2020, 12:09 am
Dimitrov, who had been talking about the consequences of his COVID-19 illness at an exhibition match from a few weeks ago, presented himself from his good side at the venue of the US Open. With an early break to 3-1, he secured the first set. In the second round he made up a 1: 3 and converted his first match point after an hour and 25 minutes.
A little later Evans defeated Rublev 7: 5, 3: 6, 6: 2. The 30-year-old had a worse rate on the first serve, fewer winners, more unforced mistakes and also won fewer points than his opponent, but won the game after a little more than two and a half hours.
"It was really hard to get rid of him. He always held against it," said Evans after the match. "I played good tennis, then average tennis again. I didn't serve great, but I got through." Evans is now playing against Raonic, Dimitrov challenges Fucsovics.
Khachanov, Schwartzman continues
In one of the first matches of the day, Karen Khachanov ensured an unexcited two-set win against Alexander Bublik. The Kazakhs started the match with a serve from below, he couldn't help but laugh:
Bublik gave his very first and his very last service game in the match and lost 4: 6, 4: 6. After the game he played another round of basketball with Khachanov, the Russian said that he had the upper hand there too.
"It was a strange feeling. But you can concentrate well on tennis," said Khachanov. "I didn't expect to play incredibly well, but I'm happy to be back in competition." Next opponent: Pablo Carreno-Busta.
Diego Schwartzman (Argentina) needed a little longer for his 7: 6 (2), 6: 3 win over Casper Ruud. In lap two he has to surpass himself: Reilly Opelka is waiting.
ATP Cincinnati / New York, further results:
Tennys Sandgren (USA) - Lorenzo Sonego (ITA) 6: 3, 7: 6 (7)
Marcos Giron (USA) - Mackie McDonald (USA) 7: 6 (2), 7: 5
Aljaz Bedene (SLO) - Cristian Garin (CHI) 6: 4, 6: 7 (10), 6: 0 (three match balls awarded in the 2nd set)
John Isner (USA) - Hubert Hurkacz (POL) 7: 5, 6: 4 (duel between two doubles partners)
Richard Gasquet (FRA) - JJ Wolf (USA) 6-4, 6-4