This story was originally published by Dead Spin
Fifth-seeded Adrian Mannarino rallied for a 6-7 (9), 6-1, 6-3 win over fellow Frenchman Terence Atmane in the first round of the Chengdu Open on Thursday in China.
Mannarino fired six aces and benefited from nine double faults by his foe to win in 2 hours and 32 minutes.
Eighth-seeded Roman Safiullin of Russia also needed three sets to post a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over Italian Fabio Fognini. Safiullin had 13 aces and won 80 percent of his first-serve points to end the match in 2 hours, 8 minutes.
Unseeded Yannick Hanfmann of Germany, Juncheng Shang of China, Federico Agustin Gomez of Argentina and Christopher O’Connell of Australia each secured a straight-set victory to advance to the second round.
Hangzhou Open
Sixth-seeded Zhizhen Zhang notched a 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 win over Denis Yevseyev of Kazakhstan in a first-round match in China.
Zhang, of China, recorded seven aces and benefited from six double faults by his opponent to win the match in just over 2 hours.
In other action, No. 8 seed Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan, unseeded Mattia Bellucci of Italy, Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain, Russia’s Alexander Shevchenko and Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan each recorded a straight-set victory to move onto the second round. Chak Lam Coleman Wong of Hong Kong advanced with a walkover win over Yibing Wu of China.
–Field Level Media
