No. 9 seed Arthur Fils saved two match points and overcame fellow Frenchman Terence Atmane 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7) in the Round of 32 at the Barcelona Open on Tuesday.
Fils, looking for his first win since he picked up two ATP 500 titles in 2024, lost a 4-1 lead in the tiebreaker but saved match point down 6-5 and 7-6. After the latter, he scored the next two points to finish it off. Fils saved 6 of 8 break points in all and overcame Atmane’s 12 aces.
The top three seeds all had smooth victories in their openers, as Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz beat Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen 6-4, 6-3; Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti beat Spanish wild card Martin Landaluce 7-5, 6-2; and Australian Alex de Minaur topped Austrian qualifier Sebastian Ofner 7-6 (7), 6-4.
However, Camilo Ugo Carabelli of Argentina surprised No. 4 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia 6-3, 6-4 in just 73 minutes, with Khachanov committing 29 unforced errors. No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia, Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic, Lorenzo Sonego of Italy and Brandon Nakashima of the U.S. also advanced.
BMW Open
Top-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany survived a close call with Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (2) in the first round in Munich.
Zverev fired 12 aces and had a 46-23 advantage in winners over Kecmanovic but had to overcome 38 unforced errors. No. 3 seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan wasn’t as fortunate, with Slovakian qualifier Alex Molcan pulling off a 6-4, 6-2 upset in 65 minutes thanks to Bublik’s 33 unforced errors.
No. 4 Flavio Cobolli and No. 6 Luciano Darderi, both of Italy, were able to advance, while Canadian Denis Shapovalov toppled Dutch No. 8 Tallon Griekspoor 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. Other winners included Daniel Altmaier of Germany, Zizou Bergs of Belgium, Joao Fonseca of Brazil and Vit Kopriva of the Czech Republic.
–Field Level Media
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