In a battle of #NextGen players, German Alexander Zverev earned the better of home favourite Karen Khachanov at the St. Petersburg Open on Monday, day one of the indoor ATP World Tour 250 tournament in Russia.
Fifth seed Zverev moved into the second round with a 7-6(3), 6-4 win against the 20-year-old Khachanov. Zverev won 71 per cent of his service points and saved one of two break points faced. Khachanov, a wild card entry, erased the lone break point he faced during the first set, but was broken twice during the second set.
The Moscow native had won four of his five previous matches after qualifying and reaching the second round of the US Open. The 6'6” right-hander beat Italian Thomas Fabbiano during his Grand Slam tournament debut.
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Zverev, the 2015 ATP Star Of Tomorrow presented by Emirates, reached his first two ATP World Tour finals at Nice in May and Halle in June. But the 19-year-old Hamburg native had lost four of his past five matches, including a second-round defeat to Brit Daniel Evans at the US Open. Zverev will next face another Russian in the second round: 20-year-old qualifier Daniil Medvedev or 19-year-old wild card Alexander Bublik.
Top seed Stan Wawrinka will make his St. Petersburg Open debut against Lukas Rosol after the Czech prevailed past Argentine Diego Schwartzman 6-4, 6-4. Wawrinka leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 5-0, including a straight-sets win on hard courts earlier this year at the Australian Open. The Swiss is fresh off his third Grand Slam tournament title at the US Open in New York.
In the other singles main draw match of the day, Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania prevailed past Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-3 in two hours and six minutes. Berankis, No. 83 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, will face fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain in the second round. Their FedEx ATP Head2Head series is tied at 1-all, with Bautista Agut having won their last contest in 2014 in Moscow.