Murray, Kyrgios cruise into second round

Two-times Wimbledon champion overcomes slow start. Swiss youngster Stricker wins tie-break trhiller.

The fans at Stuttgart’s Weissenhof can look forward to another appearance by superstar Andy Murray. The 35-year old from Great Britain cruised to a 6-4, 6-3 win against Australian qualifier Christopher O’Connell. Murray only faced problems at the start, quickly falling being 3-0 but taking the next 5 games turned the tide. In the second set, Murray’s win was never in question. “The beginning was not so good”, the current number 68 in the world conceded, “but after the first re-break in the first set there were some pretty good points.”

Before, Swiss qualifier Dominic Stricker hat to fight 157 minutes against American Maxime Cressy, before finally wearing him out 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2). It also took three sets to decide the winner of the French duel between Arthur Rinderknech and Ugo Humbert, the number 8 of the tournament. In the end, Rinderknech kept the upper hand 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4.

Hungarian Marton Fucsovics also had to go the distance against Austrian qualifier and last year’s semi-finalist Jurij Rodionov before advancing 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 to the next round.

Fan-favorite Nick Kyrgios faced less opposition when he beat rising young Czech Jiri Lehecka 7-6 (3), 6-3. Kyrgios’ doubles partner Alexander Bublik (KAZ) also only needed two sets to eliminate Denis Kudla (USA) 7:6 (3), 7-5.