Tiafoe Passes Tricky Stockholm Test
Eighth seed Frances Tiafoe levelled out after a late wobble against home favourite Elias Ymer at the Stockholm Open on Monday, edging through to win 6-4, 7-6(2) and reach second round.
Tiafoe recently took down Stefanos Tsitsipas en route to his biggest final at the ATP 500 in Vienna (l. to Zverev), but arrived in the Swedish capital looking to shake off an early exit at the Rolex Paris Masters. He wasted no time getting back in action, winning 79 per cent (41/52) of first-serve points and saving seven of the nine break points he faced in his first meeting against Ymer.
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Wild card Ymer, 25, sits at No. 167 in the FedEx ATP Rankings – but he pushed the No. 41 American to the edge after Tiafoe raced through the first set.
Tiafoe was in full flight as he won 94 per cent (16/17) of points behind his own first serve, including a 42-second service game in the early exchanges. With the Swedish crowd willing him on, the Stockholm native took a 3-1 lead in the second set, but he couldn’t halt Tiafoe as the American closed out the match in a tie-break.
The eighth seed will next face the winner of Spain’s Pedro Martinez or Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori.
Canada’s Denis Shapovalov also features at the ATP 250 event, and he will start his campaign in Stockholm against Andrea Vavassori. The Italian defeated fellow qualifier Pavel Kotov 6-3, 6-4 in the first round.