Day two at the 2016 Gerry Weber Open featured two seeded players with both Tomas Berdych and Viktor Troicki in action, but both lost out to lower ranked players on a surprising day’s play in Halle. The day held out for the majority of Tuesday, enabling the full order of play to be completed.
Baghdatis rolls back the years to defeat Berdych
Former Wimbledon semifinalist Marcos Baghdatis defeated fourth seed Berdych for the third time in his career, to record only his second victory since April. Two tie-breakers were required as he edged past 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4) in a repeat of their 2007 final at the same venue. The pair exchanged early breaks in the match after the Cypriot had broken in the third game, only to give the advantage back immediately. Break points were limited after this exchange, leading to a tiebreaker deciding who would sneak the opener. Baghdatis stormed into a 3-0 lead, securing another mini-break to take a commanding 5-1 advantage at the first changeover. He showed no signs of panicking, and served the set out with ease, winning the tie-breaker 7-3.
It was the fourth seed who broke in the third game of the second set, saving break points in his next two service games to lead 4-3. This pressure eventually told, and Berdych was broken in the following game, before missing out on a chance of avoiding a tie-breaker when two break points up when returning at 5-5. The second tie-breaker followed a similar pattern to the first one, as the world number 42 grabbed the first mini-break, before finally progressing through to the second round on his fourth match point.
Zverev edges past Troicki
18-year-old Alexander Zverev defeated seventh seed Viktor Troicki 6-4, 6-4 to progress through in his home country. The victory now means Zverev has not lost in round one of a tournament since the Australian Open at the start of the year.
The young German took the early lead in the encounter, breaking in the opening game before giving the break back five games later for 3-3. This loss of the advantage didn’t affect Zverev in the opening set, as he broke three games later, going onto serve the set out to love.
The victory looked likely early in the second set, as Troicki was broken to love in the third game. He had three chances to level the set trailing 3-4, but missed out on all the opportunities, going on to lose the set 6-4 and exit at the first round stage. Zverev’s first serve level dropped from an impressive 74 percent to 49 percent between the sets, but Troicki was unable to take advantage during the dip in momentum.
Other day two results
Last year’s semifinalist Ivo Karlovic hammered down 26 aces en route to defeating Andrey Kuznetsov 7-6 (6), 6-3, in a typically powerful performance from the tall Croat. Florian Mayer had earlier beaten Brian Baker 7-5, 7-6 (3) in the battle of the protected rankings, with Malek Jaziri setting up a likely second round meeting with defending Halle champion Roger Federer after he beat Ricardas Berankis 7-5, 6-4. Dustin Brown was the final winner of the day, as he put an end to Albert Ramos-Vinolas’ tournament hopes in the match highlighted as the ‘Match of the Day’.
In the doubles, the three top seeds progressed from round one, including the Bryan brothers who defeated David Goffin and Lucas Pouille 6-2, 6-3.
Day three preview
Eight-time champion Federer begins his quest for title number nine, as he takes on German Jan-Lennard Struff in the third match scheduled on Stadion. The match will commence after Kei Nishikori clashes with Mayer, with Philipp Kohlschreiber and Marcel Granollers beginning the day three action in Halle. Joao Sousa faces recent Stuttgart winner Dominic Thiem in the final match of the day, whilst Baghdatis clashes with Brown in an exciting match-up on Court One.
Day three order of play
Stadion – 12:00pm
(8) Philipp Kohlschreiber - Marcel Granollers
Florian Mayer - Kei Nishikori (2)
(1)Roger Federer - Jan-Lennard Struff
NOT BEFORE 5:30pm
Joao Sousa - Dominic Thiem (3)
Court One – 12:00pm
Andreas Seppi - Yuichi Sugita
NOT BEFORE 1:30pm
Benjamin Becker - Alexander Zverev
Marcos Baghdatis - Dustin Brown
(1)Bob Bryan / Mike Bryan - Tomas Berdych / Marcel Granollers
Court Two – 12:00pm
Paolo Lorenzi - Teymuraz Gabashvili
NOT BEFORE 3:00pm
Juan Sebastian Cabal / Robert Farah - Kei Nishikori / Michael Venus