Seeded seventh, Bjorn Phau’s first round match-up against qualifier Ricardas Berankis should have been a foregone conclusion. Evidently the Vilnius-born player had other ideas, taking the first set to a tie-break and subsequently winning it.
Berankis looks to have put the chronic groin injury that has dogged his season behind him and was moving excellently in the second set, securing that one comfortably, 6-4.
The 22 year old will now meet Russian Igor Andreev in the second round after the Muscovite beat Isreal’s Dudi Sela also in straight sets.
That match bore similarities with Phau and Berankis’; a stalemate between the two players in the first set requiring a tie-break to separate them. The second set was dominated by Andreev who closed out the match 6-4.
With France’s Nicolas Mahut receiving a bye into the second round, the first round match between qualifier Bradley Klahn and Paolo Lorenzi was for the honour of facing the fourth seed in the next round.
Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi struck first blood, taking the first set 6-4 before being pegged back by the Californian who took the second 3-6. Klahn’s defiance only succeeded in angering Lorenzi, however, and the Italian took to the court in the decider with only one thing on his mind; six games without reply later and Lorenzi was looking forward to a match-up with Mahut. Final score: 6-4 3-6 6-0.
To see all our predictions for upcoming matches, based on our machine learning model analysing results since 1960, see our tennis predictions page here.
