ATP New York: Miomir Kecmanovic, Steve Johnson and Marcos Giron advance

The third edition of the New York Open kicked off on Monday with four first-round encounters. Marcos Giron claimed the first ATP victory since Indian Wells last year, beating an unranked Jack Sock 6-3, 6-4 in 76 minutes. A former top-10 player is miles away from his best form after many months spent off the court, breaking Marcos twice but struggling on both the first and second serve to suffer four breaks from ten chances offered to Giron, staying without a victory at the ATP tournaments since Paris 2018! Marcos raced into a 5-1 lead in the opener with a double break, wasting three set points in game seven before closing the opener with a hold at love in game nine. The second set saw three straight breaks in the first three games, two for Giron who barely lost a point behind the initial shot in the remaining games to bring the victory home and reach the last 16.

The struggling American Steve Johnson had to kick off the season at Challengers, losing to Roger Federer in the first round of the Australian Open and securing the first ATP win in New York since August, beating the Australian Open quarter-finalist Tennys Sandgren 6-7, 6-3, 7-6 in two hours and 20 minutes. Tennys fended off six out of eight break chances but it wasn't enough for the victory, stealing Steve's serve once and losing the deciding set tie break 7-3 to push Johnson through. The 6th seed Miomir Kecmanovic defeated Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and 17 minutes, getting broken once and delivering four breaks from 11 chances to control the scoreboard and advance into the next round. Paul fended off a couple of break chances in the first game to avoid an early setback before netting a forehand at 3-3 to push Miomir in front.

The Serb saved two break chances in the next game and closed the set with a service winner in game ten for a 6-4. Paul lost ground in set number two, allowing Kecmanovic to break him thrice and move over the top with a service winner in the eighth game, facing a qualifier Paolo Lorenzi or Danilo Petrovic in the next clash. Andreas Seppi prevailed against Damir Dzumhur 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 in two hours and seven minutes, standing on the verge of defeat in the decider and crossing the finish line first despite winning six points fewer than his opponent. Damir led 5-3 in the final set before getting broken at love while serving for the victory at 5-4, wasting a match point at 6-5 in the tie break and dropping the last three points to push the Italian through.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/38u1avy