Hamburg: Fernando Verdasco overcame Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) in the opening round of German Open tennis tournament here, Monday. Fernando will next face Thiago Monteiro of Brazil who defeated Gilles Simon of France 7-6 (7-2), 6-2.
The Spaniard won the first set easily before Lajovic came back strongly to win the second set to make scores level. However, he required a tie-break in the third set to win the game. Fernando won four break points to Lajovic’s three.
Second seed Diego Schwartzman also recovered from a mid-match blip to overcome Norwegian teenager Casper Ruud 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in the opening round of the German Open tennis championships here Monday.
The 25-year-old Argentine, who reached the French Open quarterfinals last month, saved four break points in the final game to claim his 18th clay court match win of the season that lasted two hours. He will next face German qualifier Daniel Masur, who recorded his first victory of the season by defeating Maximilian Marterer 6-3, 6-4.
Defending champion Leonardo Mayer of Argentina was also in fine knick putting up an impressive show to get past Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-3, 6-2 in 83 minutes.
However, fourth seed Damir Dzumhur couldn’t live up to expectation as he struggled with his serve and was broken four times in a shock 2-6, 4-6 defeat against Slovakian qualifier Jozef Kovalik. Kovalik will next face Rudolf Molleker who stunned David Ferrer 7-5, 5-7, 6-3.