Sixth seed Jeremy Chardy battled past rising German star Alexander Zverev 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Tuesday to reach the second round of the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur.
The Frenchman advanced in one hour and 50 minutes in the pair’s first meeting, breaking his 18-year-old opponent four times and winning almost half of his return points (45 per cent) as he rallied from a 6-3, 3-1 deficit. Chardy, making his debut at this ATP World Tour 250 hard court tournament, is playing for the first time since reaching the US Open fourth round (l. to Cilic).
“I was a little bit unlucky to be down I think, but he was playing very good,” said Chardy. “It was my first match after the US Open, so it’s always tough to find your rhythm. But I knew I could come back because I was feeling the ball well and I was mentally strong. I’m really happy with this win.”
Eighth seed Vasek Pospisil cruised into the second round with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over qualifier Yasutaka Uchiyama. The Canadian, who was a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon earlier in the year (l. to Murray), fired nine aces and won 75 per cent of his service points as he claimed his 19th win of the season.
Pospisil goes on to face Nicolas Almagro or Marcos Baghdatis for a place in the quarter-finals.
Top seed David Ferrer will face Radek Stepanek in his opening match after the Czech veteran defeated qualifier Yuichi Sugita 7-6(6), 6-0. Ferrer leads the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head series 7-3.
World No. 84 Radu Albot upset fifth seed Viktor Troicki, beating the Serb 6-2, 7-6(5). The 25-year-old Moldovan claimed his eighth tour-level win of the season as he set a second-round clash with Mikhail Kukushkin, who dismissed Malaysian wild card Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-2, 6-2.
Tatsuma Ito will face Nick Kyrgios in the second round after beating Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 7-6(3).
( Courtesy of the ATP and Original Link – http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/baghdatis-pospisil-chardy-in-kuala-lumpur-tuesday-action )
Topics: Alexander Zverev, Atp World Tour, David Ferrer, Jeremy Chardy, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Open, Marcos Baghdatis, Nick Kyrgios, Nicolas Almagro, Radek Stepanek, Sports, Tennis, Vasek Pospisil, Viktor Troicki, Yasutaka Uchiyama
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