ATP NextGen Masters: Tiafoe and de Minaur successful on the first evening

Andrey Rublev, De Minaur and Frances Tiafoe have successfully started at the #NextGen-Masters in Milan. Stefanos Tsitsipas also won the tournament on the first day.

Rublev, who had to fight with injuries during the season and watch his compatriots Daniil Medvedev and Karen Khachanov pass him, has to go the full distance against Taylor Fritz. In Milan, this means that a match takes five sets. Rublev won against Fritz after a playing time of 1:55 hours with 4:2, 1:4, 3:4 (4), 4:3 (2) and 4:2.

In the second match of the evening Alex de Minaur and local hero Liam Caruana faced each other. However, the Italian was not up to the task and had to leave the court after a 1:4, 1:4 and 2:4 after only 55 minutes.

Stefanos had already presented Tsitsipas in the afternoon. The Greek defeated Jaume Munar from Spain in four sets. Frances Tiafoe, on the other hand, together with Hubert Hurkacz from Poland, offered the Milan audience the longest tie-break in the still young history of the #NextGen Master: after the US American won the first two, Hurkacz the third set, Tiafoe won the short decision in the fourth set with 12:10.

Remember: In Milan not only the No-Ad rule is applied, but a tiebreak is also played at 3:3, but only until one player reaches five points – as long as there is a two-point gap.