No. 5 seed Cameron Norrie of Great Britain earned a 7-6 (4), 6-4 win over Slovakia’s Jozef Kovalik in the first round of the Nordea Open on Monday in Bastad, Sweden.
Norrie, eliminated in the third round of Wimbledon earlier this month, hit seven aces and never faced break point against Kovalik. Neither player lost serve in the first set and Norrie trailed the tiebreaker 3-2 before going on a five-point run to win it.
Norrie’s next opponent will be the winner between Spanish legend Rafael Nadal and Sweden’s Leo Borg
The only other first-round singles match of the day saw No. 8 seed Pavel Kotov of Russia outlast Chile’s Cristian Garin 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-1. Kotov held a 5-1 edge in aces, capitalized on Garin’s seven double faults and saved four of five break points.
Hamburg Open
Pedro Martinez of Spain downed Italian sixth seed Matteo Arnaldi 7-6 (4), 6-1 in the opening round in Germany.
Arnaldi fired seven aces and 26 total winners, but committed 17 unforced errors to Martinez’s nine. Martinez won 18 of 19 points at the net.
No. 4 seed Francisco Cerundolo beat lucky loser Francisco Comesana 7-5, 6-4 in an all-Argentine battle. Comesana was coming off a first-round Wimbledon upset of sixth seed Andrey Rublev and lost to eventual semifinalist Lorenzo Musetti of Italy.
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