Davis Cup player Philipp Kohlschreiber (Augsburg) has entered the second round of the Masters tournament in Madrid two days after his final defeat in Munich against Alexander Zverev.
The 34-year-old beat Yuichi Sugita 6-4, 6-3 before the French Open (27 May to 10 June) at the start of the penultimate major clay court event. Above all, Kohli could rely on his service in bright sunshine. He only gave four points on his own serve throughout the match and was always successful when the second service came.
Kohlschreiber, number 28 in the world, converted his first match point after 1:08 hours against the 18 lower Japanese and now faces Roberto Bautista Agut (Spain/No. 11), who he had beaten in two sets in the quarter-finals in Munich. Kohlschreiber was eliminated five times in the first and once (2015) in the second round of the last six Caja Magica events.
Mischa Zverev (Hamburg) failed on Monday due to his opening opponent Federico Delbonis (Argentina). On Tuesday Jan-Lennard Struff (Warstein) and Peter Gojowczyk (Munich) will fight against the Romanian Marius Copil and Spain Albert Ramos-Vinolas for the second round.
Number two seed Alexander Zverev will not play Greece’s super talent Stefanos Tsitsipas or Russia’s Jewgeni Donskoi until round two.