Rome, May 7 (SocialNews.XYZ) Daniel Altmaier saved two match points to overcome Zhang Zhizhen 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 in the Italian Open first round. for his first ATP Masters 1000 match win of the season.
The 27-year-old's now set up a second-round meeting with two-time Rome champion Alexander Zverev, who leads their ATP Head2Head series 3-1.
Elsewhere, Yannick Hanfmann and Jan-Lennard Struff also advanced. Hanfmann downed former Top-10 star Hubert Hurkacz 6-7(3), 7-6(2), 6-2 to set a second-round clash with 18th seed Luciano Darderi. Struff defeated Francisco Comesana 6-2, 6-4 and will next take on 11th seed Jiri Lehecka, ATP reports.
Home favourite Matteo Arnaldi maintained his run of good form by pulling through a difficult opening test against Jaume Munar.
Arnaldi, who lifted the trophy at the ATP Challenger 175 event in Cagliari last week, earned a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory for his first tour-level match win in six attempts this year. The Italian will play sixth seed Alex de Minaur for a third-round spot.
Sebastian Baez and Nuno Borges were among the other first-round winners on Day 1 at the Foro Italico.
Baez needed seven match points but finally completed a 6-3, 7-6(8) victory against Jenson Brooksby and will next play ninth seed Alexander Bublik. Meanwhile Portuguese star Borges raced past qualifier Jesper de Jong 6-3, 6-0 and will be the second-round opponent for fast-rising Rafael Jodar.
In the women's singles, Alexandra Eala, the only player from the Philippines to appear in the Italian Open in the Open Era, rallied from a break down in the final set to beat Poland’s Magdalena Frech and advance to the second round in Rome with a 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 win in 2 hours, 21 minutes.
The victory was Eala’s 15th main-draw win on the WTA Tour this season, the most by a left-handed player, and marked her fifth consecutive opening-match win at WTA 1000 events.
She will next meet 31st seed Wang Xinyu, who won their only previous encounter - a three-set victory in the Auckland semifinals in January.
Source: IANS
About Gopi
Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.
He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.
When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.
He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz