Second seed Alexander Zverev opened his quest for the Ricoh Open title on Wednesday with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Adrian Mannarino in 54 minutes. He will next face seventh lucky loser Julien Benneteau in the quarter-finals.
“I am happy that my first match on grass was comfortable and it went my way right from the start,” said Zverev.
The 20-year-old German has a 28-10 match record on the season, which includes three titles at the Open Sud de France (d. Gasquet), BMW Open by FWU (d. Pella) and the Internazionali BNL d'Italia (d. Djokovic). He is the leader of the Emirates ATP Race To Milan, for a spot at the Next Gen ATP Finals from 7-11 November.
His best performance at a grass-court tournament came last year when he reached the Gerry Weber Open final (l. to F. Mayer).
Benneteau ended fellow Frenchman Nicolas Mahut’s 11-match winning streak at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory in one hour and 48 minutes. It was their fourth tour-level meeting and first since the 2007 Moselle Open. Seventh seed Mahut, the champion in 2013, 2015-16, hit 12 aces in suffering his first loss to Benneteau. The paired teamed up to win the 1999 US Open junior doubles title and this year’s Open 13 Marseille doubles title in February.
“It’s never easy to play Nico, but it’s a long time since we played each other,” 35-year-old Benneteau told ATPWorldTour.com. “It’s a very good win, especially at his ‘home’ here, where he has won three times. Nico is a world class player on grass. I tried to stay calm and relaxed, and I managed to find the solutions to win. It’s good to be back and playing at these tournaments.”
Fourth seed and last year’s finalist Gilles Muller struck 15 aces and won 31 of his 35 first-service points to beat Andreas Seppi 7-6(5), 6-4 in one hour and 42 minutes. It was his third straight win in six meetings over Seppi. He will next challenge eighth seed Aljaz Bedene, who lost just one of his first service points and hit 10 aces to beat #NextGenATP American Ernesto Escobedo 6-3, 6-4 in 65 minutes.
“It was a good win as it’s never easy to play Andreas," Muller told ATPWorldTour.com. "There were some critical moments in the match, but I am happy to have got through them. It’s always great to play on the grass and it’s a surface I like.”
