Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands used his strong serve to upset No. 2 seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Wednesday in the United Arab Emirates.
Griekspoor fired off 14 aces without a double fault and won 35 of 40 first-service points (87.5%). He also saved three break points and had just 10 unforced errors to 30 winners. Bublik had 29 winners but committed 23 unforced errors.
In another pair of upsets, Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech toppled No. 4 Jack Draper of Great Britain 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-4, and Jenson Brooksby beat No. 7 Karen Khachanov of Russia 7-6 (6), 6-4. In similar fashion to Griekspoor, Rinderknech racked up 20 aces without one double fault.
No. 1 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada moved on to the quarterfinals by beating French qualifier Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 6-4, 6-4, while Russian third seed Daniil Medvedev defeated Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3. No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia beat Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3, while a pair of Czech natives, No. 6 Jakub Mensik and No. 8 Jiri Lehecka, advanced in straight sets.
BCI Seguros Chile Open
A pair of upsets saw the fourth and seventh seeds bow out in the second round at Santiago, Chile.
Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann racked up a 28-12 edge in winners in beating No. 4 seed Camilo Ugo Carabelli of Argentina 6-4, 6-3. Italian qualifier Andrea Pellegrino benefited from his opponent’s 50 unforced errors, including 11 double faults, in a 7-6 (3), 6-7 (2), 6-3 win over No. 7 seed Francisco Comesana of Argentina.
Lithuania’s Vilius Gaubas rallied past Croatia’s Dino Prizmic 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 in a match lasting 3 hours, 2 minutes. In the final match of the day, No. 2 seed Luciano Darderi of Italy edged Mariano Navone of Argentina 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
Abierto Mexicano Telcel
Miomir Kecmanovic produced the best victory of his career, upsetting top-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-3, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4) in the second round at Acapulco, Mexico.
Kecmanovic, a 26-year-old Serbian, entered the match with an 0-11 record against players ranked among the world’s top five. The last two sets featured no service breaks, but Kecmanovic captured the last two points of the third-set tiebreaker on Zverev’s serve.
Zverev was the 2021 Acapulco champion.
Italy’s Mattia Bellucci knocked out fourth-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain 6-3, 6-3, and fifth-seeded Italian Flavio Cobolli toppled the Czech Republic’s Dalibor Svrcina 6-4, 6-4. Eighth-seeded Frances Tiafoe saved two match points while slipping past Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7) in an all-U.S. matchup.
France’s Terence Atmane, the United States’ Brandon Nakashima and Chinese qualifier Yibing Wu also advanced.
–Field Level Media
