No. 4 seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia breezed to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Chile’s Cristian Garin in a first-round match on Wednesday at the Astana Open in Kazakhstan.
Djokovic never faced a break point in the 62-minute match and only lost six points on his serve while improving to 3-0 against Garin.
No. 3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece advanced to the quarterfinals with a hard-fought 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3) win over Italy’s Luca Nardi. No. 5 Andrey Rublev of Russia also reached the quarters with a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of China’s Zhizhen Zhang.
Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut and France’s Adrian Mannarino also won their second-round matches, while the other first-round winners included No. 9 seed Marin Cilic of Croatia and Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori.
Japan Open Tennis Championships
No. 3 seed Taylor Fritz held off Australian James Duckworth 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-1 and advanced to the second round in Tokyo.
No. 7 Denis Shapovalov of Canada was the only other seeded player in action, beating Steve Johnson 6-3, 7-6 (3) in another opening-round match.
Pedro Martinez outlasted fellow Spaniard Jaume Munar 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 in a second-round match. South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon also advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-2 victory against Mackenzie McDonald. Local favorite Yoshihito Nishioka lost 2-6, 7-6 (1), 6-2 to Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic in the first round.
–Field Level Media
