#NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov was made to work hard on Thursday as he made a winning start on his Miami Open presented by Itau debut. The 18-year-old led Viktor Troicki of Serbia 5-1 in the third set and required six match points to wrap up a 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(6) victory in two hours and 27 minutes. He’ll now prepare to meet No. 24 seed Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia & Herzegovina in the second round.
Troicki, who reached the fourth round in 2009 and 2011, lost six first-service points in the first two sets, but Shapovalov regained the momentum by winning four games in a row from 1-1 in the decider. The World No. 46 then failed to convert two match point opportunities at 5-1 and, in a tense end to the third set, Troicki worked his way back – recovering from 0/40 and a further three match points in the 10th game. The pair’s second meeting (2017 Rolex Shanghai Masters) was decided on a tie-break, which saw Shapovalov win the first three points.
Watch Hot Shot: Troicki Strikes Backhand Pass
Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka started his Miami campaign in confident fashion by beating #NextGenATP Australian qualifier Alex de Minaur 6-2, 6-4 in 77 minutes. He will now square-off against tenth-seeded Czech and 2010 finalist Tomas Berdych, who Nishioka beat en route to the 2017 BNP Paribas Open fourth round.
Elsewhere, Spanish wild card Nicola Kuhn, who turned 18 on Tuesday, recorded his first ATP World Tour match win in a hard-fought 7-6(4), 6-4 victory over Darian King of Barbados in one hour and 42 minutes for a second-round clash against Italian No. 15 seed Fabio Fognini, the Brasil Open titlist in February. Kuhn is the second-youngest Spaniard to earn an ATP World Tour victory behind just Rafael Nadal, who was 17 when he beat a 17-year-old Richard Gasquet at 2004 Estoril.
Another rising star who earned a victory Thursday was 2017 Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier Daniil Medvedev, who recovered from an early deficit to battle past #NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. He sets up a second-round match against No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev, against whom he has never won a set in two previous FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings. This year's Sydney champion, Medvedev, had lost all five of his main-draw matches at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events before reaching the third round at the BNP Paribas Open.
Did You Know?
Nicola Kuhn, who turned 18 earlier this week, is the second-youngest Spaniard to win an ATP World Tour match behind only Rafael Nadal, who earned a victory at 17.