No. 1 seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain was pushed to three sets before finishing off Dutch wild card Botic van de Zandschulp 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-1 in the first round of the ABN AMRO Open on Tuesday in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Alcaraz, the third-ranked player in the world, didn’t get control of the match until the third set, when he won 32 of 51 total points. Alcaraz faced break point seven times in the match, saving four, while also converting 4 of 9 opportunities to break his opponent.
It was an easier day for third seed Alex de Minaur of Australia (6-2, 6-4 over Belgium’s David Goffin), fourth seed Andrey Rublev of Russia (6-3, 6-4 over China’s Zhizhen Zhang) and fifth seed Holger Rune of Denmark (7-6 (4), 6-4 over Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego).
Pedro Martinez of Spain and Jiri Lehecka and Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic also advanced.
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No. 3 seed and defending champion Tommy Paul rallied from a set down to beat fellow American Jenson Brooksby 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-4 in first-round action in Texas.
Paul was down 5-3 in the first set, charged ahead with three straight games, but still fell into a tiebreaker situation with Brooksby and lost a back-and-forth battle.
Still, Paul pulled out the victory on the strength of saving 6 of 9 break points and winning 45 of 62 first serves (72.6 percent).
Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie upset No. 7 seed Alex Michelsen 2-6, 7-6 (1), 6-1, saving 11 of 14 break points along the way.
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In the night session, No. 4 seed Ben Shelton topped Australia’s Aleksandar Vukic 6-3, 6-3, and No. 2 seed Casper Ruud of Norway was pushed before beating Australia’s James Duckworth 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.
Duckworth was a lucky loser from qualifying who got the slot in the draw when the United States’ Marcos Giron withdrew on Tuesday because of a neck injury.
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