Third-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece avenged his loss to Frances Tiafoe at Wimbledon, defeating the American 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday to advance to the third round of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Tsitsipas needed just 77 minutes to eliminate Tiafoe in a turnaround from June, when Tiafoe stunned the Greek in straight sets on the opening day of play at Wimbledon. With rain falling outside, the two played under the closed roof at Ariake Coliseum as Tsitsipas struck nine aces and won 28 of 31 points on his first serve.
Next up for Tsitsipas is Ugo Humbert of France, the 14th seed, who came from behind to beat Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5.
In other action, home-crowd favorite Kei Nishikori defeated Marcos Giron of the United States 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-1. The former world No. 4, Nishikori won the bronze medal in singles in the 2016 Rio Games. He will meet Ilya Ivashka of Belarus, a 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3 winner over Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan.
Other third-round matches will feature Russian Karen Khachanov and eighth-seeded Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, and Jeremy Chardy of France vs. Great Britain’s Liam Broady, who upset Hubert Hurkacz of Poland, the seventh seed.
Generali Open
Austrian wild card Alexander Erler posted a 7-5, 1-6, 6-2 victory over Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in the opening round at Kitzbuhel, Austria.
The 10th-seeded Alcaraz was fresh off winning his first ATP title in Umag on Sunday and was unable to put up a strong fight. He failed to save any break points while Erler saved 8 of 11.
Two other seeded players went down to defeat on Tuesday. France’s Arthur Rinderknech rolled to a 6-2, 6-4 victory over fifth-seeded Federico Delbonis of Argentina and Germany’s Daniel Altmaier was a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 winner over sixth-seeded Laslo Djere of Serbia.
Truist Atlanta Open
Brandon Nakashima, a 19-year-old San Diego native, needed nearly 2 1/2 hours to get past Trent Bryde 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-4 in the first round at Atlanta.
Nakashima, ranked 115th in the world, finished with a 10-2 edge in aces and lost his serve just once against Bryde, who just finished his junior year at the University of Georgia.
Also advancing to the second round were two seeded U.S. players, No. 5 Taylor Fritz and No. 6 John Isner, as well as No. 7 Benoit Paire of France. Jack Sock of the United States, Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland and Australian qualifier Christopher O’Connell also won.
Australia’s Nick Kyrgios topped South Africa’s Kevin Anderson 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the last match of the night.
–Field Level Media
