Spain’s Rafael Nadal shook off any rust and defeated Leo Borg — the 21-year-old son of tennis legend Bjorn Borg — 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the Nordea Open on Tuesday in Bastad, Sweden.
Nadal, 38, had not played in an ATP Tour match since May 27, when he lost a first-round match to Alexander Zverev at the French Open. Nadal, with 92 tour-level titles to his credit, was competing in Bastad for the first time since winning the event in 2005.
He didn’t face a break point against fellow wild-card entry Borg and won 82.1 percent (32 of 39) of his first-serve points in capturing the match in one hour and 25 minutes. He will face No. 5 seed Cameron Norrie of Great Britain in the next round.
In other matches, Nadal’s countryman Roberto Carballes Baena won in three sets over sixth-seeded Roman Safiullin of Russia 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-3; and Kazakhstan qualifier Timofey Skatov overcame Japan’s Taro Daniel 6-7 (7), 6-2, 7-6 (4).
Seventh-seeded Nuno Borges of Portugal defeated lucky loser Andrea Pellegrino of Italy 6-2, 7-6 (3). Other winners were Portugal’s Henrique Rocha, India’s Sumit Nagal, Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante, Kazakhstan’s Dennis Yevseyev, Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro and Croatian qualifier Duje Ajdukovic.
Hamburg Open
It was a good day for seeded players, led by No. 2 Holger Rune with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan in the opening round in Germany.
Denmark’s Rune saved all four break points while converting two of five. He also had a 23-13 edge in winners.
Third-seeded Sebastian Baez of Argentina downed Germany’s Dominik Koepfer 6-2, 6-3; fifth-seed Arthur Fils of France needed three sets to beat Spain’s Jaume Munar 5-7, 6-3, 6-1; seventh-seeded Luciano Darderi of Italy posted a 6-1, 2-6, 6-0 win over lucky loser Nick Hardt of the Dominican Republic; and eighth-seeded Zhizhen Zhang of China got his bearings to beat Brazil’s Thiago Seyboth Wild 7-6 (6), 6-0.
Other winners were Frenchman Hugo Gaston, Argentina qualifier Marco Trungelliti and Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic.
Swiss Open Gstaad
Lukas Klein of Slovakia won a tight battle with No. 8 seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland 7-6 (4), 2-6, 7-5 in the first round in Switzerland.
Klein had a slight edge in aces (9-7) and winners (22-21), while Wawrinka saved 3 of 4 on break-point opportunities to 0-for-2 for his opponent in the match lasting just more than two hours.
Sixth-seeded Matteo Berrettini of Italy downed Argentina’s Pedro Cachin 6-4, 7-6 (2). Qualifier Quentin Halys defeated fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5).
Other winners were Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann, Brazilian qualifier Gustavo Heide, Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic and the Netherlands’ Botic van de Zandschulp.
Infosys Hall of Fame Open
Mackenzie McDonald rallied from a first-set loss to oust eighth-seeded Rinky Hijikata of Australia 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the opening round in Newport, R.I.
McDonald converted 7 of 13 break point opportunities, to 6 of 12 for his opponent. Hijikata had more winners (34-24), but McDonald was better on first-serve points, winning 46 of 66 (70 percent) to 32 of 54 (59.3 percent) for Hijikata.
British qualifier Billy Harris eliminated Canada’s Gabriel Diallo 7-6 (4), 7-5; seventh-seeded Arthur Rinderknech of France beat Japan’s Shintaro Mochizuki 6-3, 7-6 (5); and France’s Benoit Paire took a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (4) victory from Zachary Svajda in a match that was suspended Monday at the start of the third set due to darkness.
–Field Level Media
