By Field Level Media
No. 8 seed Jack Draper of Great Britain was forced to retire while losing in the third set of his opening-round match of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, 3-6, 6-3, 4-1 (ret.), against Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry on Monday.
It’s another setback for Draper, who reached No. 4 in the world rankings last year before he was forced to prematurely end his season due to an arm injury. He had over twice as many unforced errors (45) as winners (22) prior to retiring.
The other seeded competitor in action, No. 7 Cameron Norrie of Great Britain, outlasted Swiss veteran wild card Stan Wawrinka for a 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 win that took two hours and 34 minutes.
In other Monday action, Rafael Jodar beat Jaume Munar 6-1, 6-2 in an all- Spanish matchup; Portugal’s Nuno Borges swept France’s Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-4; Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic beat Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti 7-5, 6-4; Corentin Moutet of France beat Peru’s Ignacio Buse 6-4, 6-4; and Ethan Quinn beat fellow American Reilly Opelka 7-5, 7-6 (7).
BMW Open by Bitpanda
No. 2 seed Ben Shelton was pushed to the brink before surviving with a 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-3 victory over fellow American and lucky loser Emilio Nava in his opening-round match at Munich, Germany.
Shelton’s first serve was erratic (61%) but he amassed 14 aces and won 73% of his service points. No. 5 Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina won his opener in easier fashion, 6-2, 6-2, over India’s Sumit Nagal. No. 7 Arthur Rinderknech of France also advanced to the second round with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Alex Michelsen.
In unseeded action, Belgium’s Alexander Blockx swept Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann 7-6 (2), 6-2, Canada’s Gabriel Diallo easily beat Vitaliy Sachko of Ukraine 6-1, 6-2 and Dutch competitor Botic van de Zandschulp triumphed over Marc-Andrea Huesler of Switzerland 7-6 (6), 6-3.
–Field Level Media
