Tennis: Bautista Agut beats Safiullin in Barcelona
he Spaniard, who is chasing his 12th ATP Tour crown this week, will meet seventh seed Karen Khachanov in the second round.
America’s Ben Shelton survived a stern test from tricky Briton Daniel Evans to find a way into the second round of the Mexican Open with a 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(5) win in two hours and 45 minutes.
After Shelton played an untidy first set full of errors, he found his game in the second set. Interestingly Shelton began winning many of the longer points against Evans.
Serving at 4-5, 0/40 in the decider, Evans bounced back to stay in the match. Shelton’s big opportunity came at 15/40, when he missed a makeable forehand passing shot from well behind the baseline, ATP reports.
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The 33-year-old Evans broke in the next game, but was unable to serve out the match and paid for it in the ensuing tie-break. Shelton completed his victory with a swinging forehand volley winner.
In another American-British match, the Briton Jack Draper ousted seventh seed Tommy Paul 6-0, 6-4 in one hour and 26 minutes.
It was the third ATP Head2Head encounter of the year between the pair and Draper moved to 2-1 in those meetings by converting all three of his break points according to ATP Stats.
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