Cheered on by NBA legend Kevin Durant, American Frances Tiafoe opened his Mubadala Citi DC Open marketing campaign with a decent 7-6(5), 7-6(5) win towards Aslan Karatsev on Tuesday.
The second seed Tiafoe, who has claimed titles in Houston and Stuttgart this 12 months, thrilled the house crowd along with his shotmaking capacity all through the two-hour, nine-minute contest and absorbed Karatsev’s firepower to advance on the ATP 500 occasion.
Playing in his first match since Wimbledon, the 25-year-old Tiafoe fought off a set level on serve at 5-4 within the second set to keep away from going the gap and later within the tie-break, he received 4 consecutive factors after falling behind 3/5.
[ATP APP]
“Unbelievable match tonight. It was so tight all the way through, he really made me earn it,” Tiafoe mentioned in his on-court interview. “I’m just happy to get through. He’s a tough player, he’s made the semis of a Grand Slam and he’s very, very dangerous. Very tough first round.”
With Durant sitting courtside, Tiafoe earned his second Lexus ATPHead2Head win towards Karatsev to set a first-time assembly towards 18-year-old Chinese star Shang Juncheng within the second spherical. In his seventh look in Washington, World No. 10 Tiafoe’s finest consequence on the hard-court match got here final 12 months, when he made the quarter-finals earlier than falling to eventual champion Nick Kyrgios.
Kevin Durant attends Tuesday’s night session on the Mubadala Citi DC Open. Credit: Ben Solomon
Earlier within the day, Michael Mmoh saved three match factors to upset fourth seed Hubert Hurkacz 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(4). Despite having a match level of his personal on return at 6-5 within the second set, Mmoh was pushed to a decider earlier than closing the thrilling two-hour, 55-minute battle.
The American traded blows from the baseline with the World No. 17 and produced a spotlight reel of winners to earn his third Top 20 win of the season. Hurkacz will rue letting slip three match factors, certainly one of which got here after profitable a gruelling 38-shot rally at deuce. All three of the Pole’s match factors got here on return at 5-4 within the third set, however Mmoh held his nerve and continued to play aggressive to flee.
Australian Jordan Thompson ousted wild card Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-7(1), 6-1 after profitable 56 per cent of factors behind his second serve, in comparison with the South African’s 40 per cent. Anderson, 37, was taking part in simply his second match since getting back from retirement in July. Emil Ruusuvuori produced a clean-hitting efficiency to rally previous final 12 months’s finalist Yoshihito Nishioka 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2 after two hours, seven minutes.
Source: www.atptour.com