Struff Blasts Into Munich Second Round; Lajovic Falls
Jan-Lennard Struff blasted his way into the BMW Open second round on Tuesday after he knocked out Slovakian lucky loser Andrej Martin 6-4, 6-3 in 76 minutes.
The seventh-seeded German, who reached the 2014 Munich semi-finals, lost just five of his first-serve points (21/26) and hit six aces. Struff awaits Dominik Koepfer, who ousted three-time champion Philipp Kohlschreiber 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 after two hours and 24 minutes.
[WATCH LIVE 1]
One break of serve in each set proved to be enough for American qualifier Mackenzie McDonald, who knocked out sixth-seeded Serbian Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 6-4 in 86 minutes. The 26-year-old dropped just eight games in two qualifying matches and is playing his first clay-court event since October 2020 at Roland Garros. He takes on Belarusian qualifier Ilya Ivashka in the second round.
Elsewhere, former World No. 19 Pablo Cuevas will play second seed Casper Ruud after a 7-6(4), 0-6, 6-1 first-round win over American Tennys Sandgren in one hour and 47 minutes.
Later in the day, Colombian qualifier Daniel Elahi Galan upset Sebastian Korda 6-1, 7-6(7) in one hour and 29 minutes. Korda struggled with his form at the start of the match, losing nine games in a row from 1-1. The World No. 115 did well to stay focused despite a late second-set surge from Korda.
From 2-5 down with Galan serving for the match, the 20-year-old American turned his body language and the momentum around by reeling off four games in a row. The tie-break could have gone either way but ultimately Korda missed an overhead long to give Galan the win. The 24-year-old next plays fifth seed Nikoloz Basilashvili.