Opening round action continued on Tuesday at the China Open, with the top four seeds contesting their first round matches. However, only three of them were successful in kicking off their campaign, as one of the top four went crashing out to the hottest young gun on the tour. Here’s what happened on day two in Beijing.
Results
Top seed Andy Murray led the charge on day one with a straight forward win over Andreas Seppi. The Scot was solid through, preventing his inconsistent opponent from ever taking any measure of control in the match. Check out the full recap here. Second seed Rafael Nadal put on a clinic in his opening round match, needing barely over an hour and only 14 games to oust Paolo Lorenzi. Check out the full recap here. Third seed Milos Raonic was dialed in on serve, riding his 23 aces to a straight sets win over Florian Mayer. Check out the full recap here.
The upset of the day saw fourth seed Dominic Thiem suffer a devastating loss to the red-hot Alexander Zverev. The St. Petersburg Open champion shook off some early jitters before coming back to win 4-6, 6-1, 6-3. A wild first set saw the pair exchange breaks to start the match and Zverev save more break points in the third game. Eventually, Thiem’s persistence was rewarded, as he broke the young German late after saving four break points on his own serve, eventually taking the opening 6-4.
Zverev shook off losing the first set quickly, saving a break point in the opening game and responding with two breaks of his own, racing to a 5-0 lead and eventually taking the set 6-1. Once again, in the third set, a failure to convert a break point would prove costly for Thiem, as he missed an opportunity in the sixth game. Zverev broke the very next game and would break the Austrian again as he served to stay in the match, sealing the upset in an hour and 53 minutes. With the loss, Thiem will fall to eighth in the ATP Race to London, the final qualifying spot, and could fall to ninth, out of qualifying, if Tomas Berdych wins the title in Tokyo.
A wild, momentum-swinging match saw the erratic Fabio Fognini battled past Viktor Troicki in a tight three-setter, with the Italian eventually emerging victorious 2-6, 6-2, 7-5. Fognini had a nightmare start, being broken twice off the bat to trail 4-0, eventually dropping the opening set. He responded with a late charge in the set, reeling off four unanswered games of his own from 2-2 to send the match to a decider. Troicki seemed to be in command when he broke early and took a 3-1 lead, but the Italian eventually levelled at 4-4. After saving break points in the 11th game, Fognini would break Troicki for the match in the 12th game to reach the second round in just under two hours.
In other action, American Jack Sock got off to a strong start with a solid 6-3, 7-5 win over Ze Zhang. The American did not face a break point in the match. Andrey Kuznetsov was also victorious, knocking off countryman Konstantin Kravchuk in straight sets.
The remaining first round matches will be played tomorrow, with a handful of second round matches, including Andy Murray, will take place.