American No. 2 seed Ben Shelton saved three match points in order to rally past Croatian qualifier Borna Gojo 4-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3) in the first round of the BMW Open on Monday in Munich, Germany.
After Shelton dropped the first set, neither player broke serve until the second-set tiebreaker, where Gojo went up 6-4 before Shelton won four points in a row. Shelton then saved another match point in the 12th game of the third set to force the decisive third-set tiebreaker. He finished 9-for-10 in break points saved.
German top seed Alexander Zverev had an easier time dispatching Frenchman Alexandre Muller 6-4, 6-1. Other winners included German wild card Daniel Altmaier, Belgium’s David Goffin, Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands and Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia.
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No. 4 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia hit 23 winners in a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Dutch qualifier Jesper De Jong in the first round in Spain.
Rublev needed less than 65 minutes to advance, while sixth seed Holger Rune of Denmark had a similarly simple 7-5, 6-4 win over Spanish wild card Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Rune had four aces and a 27-15 advantage in total winners.
Sebastian Korda of the U.S. rallied past Italian Matteo Arnaldi 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Also advancing were British lucky loser Jacob Fearnley, Serbian qualifier Hamad Medjedovic and Spain’s Pedro Martinez.
–Field Level Media
