A star-studded Halle Open kicked off its first-round clashes today with the 3rd, 5th, and 8th seeds playing. Retired tennis legend Roger Federer holds the record for the most Halle Open titles with 10 wins in 13 finals played. He’s also the only player to win the title four times in a row between 2003 and 2006.
Alexander Bublik won his second and biggest title in the 2023 Halle Final when he defeated Andrey Rublev in three sets. The defending champion will face a qualifier, Max Purcell from Australia tomorrow. The other 2023 finalist and 2024 Halle Open 4th seed, Andrey Rublev, will start tomorrow against Marcos Giron.
Hurkacz Breaks Cobolli’s Solid Defense
Hubert Hurkacz kicked off the 2024 Halle Open with a clash with Italian Flavio Cobolli. Hurkacz, the world No. 9 and Polish No. 1, won the Halle Open title in 2022.
In the first set, the Pole had a relatively sound first serve, winning 16 of 23 first serve points, eight of them from aces. He also won 67 percent of his nine second-serve points. Although Hurkacz dropped a break of his serve to Cobolli, he converted two of seven break point opportunities to win the first set 7-5.
Hubert Hurkacz’s brilliant first-serve performance continued in the second set, with him winning 25 of his 28 first-serve points, including 11 aces. The Pole didn’t face a single break point on his serve but created two opportunities for himself which Cobolli saved. Hurkacz eventually won a lopsided tiebreak to break into the Halle Open second round.
Daniil Medvedev Wins While Felix Retires
The 3rd seed and world No. 5, Daniil Medvedev opened his Halle Open with a matchup against Portuguese Nuno Borges. Medvedev was pretty solid on his serves and his returns. Both players managed one break of each other’s serves in the first set. Medvedev won a tiebreak 7-4 to take the opening set.
The second set was more of the same for the Russian. He remained solid on his serves and returns, eventually penetrating Borges’ defense with a break of his serve to win the second set 6-4 and book a place in the Halle Open second round.
Following Daniil Medvedev’s clash with Nuno Borges was Felix Auger-Aliassime’s match against Dominik Koepfer. Koepfer was solid on his return of Auger-Aliassime’s serves, breaking the Canadian’s serve twice to lead 6-4, 4-3 before the Canadian had to retire.
Other Halle Open Day 1 Clashes
Fabian Marozsan defeated Roman Safiullin in their first-round clash, converting one break point in the first set and two in the third set to win the encounter. Safiullin tried to rally back in the second set, winning 6-4, but it ultimately wasn’t enough.
Following Safiullin’s defeat was a tight encounter between Miomir Kecmanovic and Lorenzo Sonego that required two tiebreaks to separate them. Both players were solid on their serves, but the Italian nicked ahead of the Serbian in the tiebreaks to win 7-6, 7-6.
Zhizhen Zhang and Sebastian Ofner rounded up the Halle Open for the day. Both players struck a combined 44 aces in the match, with Zhang hitting 23 of them. The Chinese player went ahead of the Austrian after winning a first-set tiebreak but Ofner equalized with a second-set tiebreak win.
Ofner eventually surrendered a break of his serve in the third set to gift Zhang a 6-4 third-set win and a place in the Halle Open second round.
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Ebenezer has been an avid writer for over a decade and a half. Within that period, he has garnered experience in various fields such as editing, graphics design, transcribing, sales, data analysis, and football management. He’s also the author of the mystery thriller novel “The Eye of Ra.” For more articles by Ebenezer Ugorji, click here and here!
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