Frenchman Adrian Mannarino knocked off No. 1 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia 5-7, 7-6 (4), 6-3 on Thursday in the second round of the VTB Kremlin Cup in Moscow.
Despite serving 10 aces and saving 8 of 12 break points, Rublev bowed out in front of his hometown crowd as Mannarino saved one match point during his second-set tiebreak victory and fended him off in a tidy third set.
Rublev’s countryman, No. 2 seed Aslan Karatsev, fared better and posted a 6-4, 6-3 win over Belarusian qualifier Egor Gerasimov.
Spain’s Pedro Martinez upset Serbian No. 4 seed Filip Krajinovic 6-3, 6-4. Bulgarian lucky loser Ricardas Berankis handled Argentina’s Federico Coria 6-2, 6-1, and France’s Gilles Simon beat American Mackenzie McDonald 6-3, 6-2.
European Open
Marton Fucsovics of Hungary took No. 4 seed Roberto Bautista Agut the distance and defeated the Spaniard 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1 in Antwerp, Belgium.
Fucsovics bounced back from losing a close first-set tiebreak and ended up winning 64 percent of the games against Bautista Agut. He delivered seven aces and won 41 of 60 first-service points (68 percent).
No. 2 seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina eliminated Great Britain’s Andy Murray 6-4, 7-6 (6) two days after Murray’s marathon win in the first round against American Frances Tiafoe.
But two Americans are still alive in Antwerp, including Brandon Nakashima, who bested Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 6-3 in a 2-hour, 24-minute match. No. 7 seed Lloyd Harris of South Africa was also a winner, beating Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 6-2, 6-3.
–Field Level Media
