The Tokyo tournament continues to gather surprises. If Alexander Zverev said goodbye to the first round on Monday, this Wednesday it was the turn of Hubert Hurkacz and Caspe Ruud.
The Norwegian, seeded number 2, The American Marcos Giron surpassed him in just two sets, 6-3 and 6-4.
Ruud never found his place on the Ariake Coliseum track. He lost his serve twice in the first set and had no chance to take Giron’s, who lost to the Nordic in their only match, in 2021 in Paris.
In the second set, Ruud once broke the American’s serve, but he flipped the coin twice and confirmed his passage to the quarterfinals.
In that round the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime was waiting for himwho defeated Austrian Sebastian Ofner 6-4 and 6-1.
As he is currently ranked eighth in the ATP rankings, This early elimination could also penalize him for the ATP Finals.
Previously, Hubert Hurkaczwho just won his second Masters 1000 in Shanghai, fell against the Chinese Zhizhen Zhang57th in the world, in three sets, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(4).
The Pole started well, winning the first set despite a poor first serve (45%) and twice breaking his Chinese opponent, whom he has not lost in two meetings.
However, in the second set he was outplayed by his rival, and lost the third set in a tie-break after 2 hours and 14 minutes against a player who hit 10 aces throughout the match.
Zhizhen Zhang, 26, who has yet to win a main tour tournament, will face Russian Aslan Karatsev, 50th in the ATP rankings, in the second round after his surprise victory over No. 6 seed, American Frances Tiafoe, 6-3 and 7-6, at the beginning of the tournament.
Source: La Verdad
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