American Frances Tiafoe among first-round winners in Stockholm
No. 8 seed Frances Tiafoe of the United States outlasted Sweden's Elias Ymer 6-4, 7-6 (2) on Monday in the first round of the Stockholm Open in Sweden.
Tiafoe was sharp on both ends of break points, converting three of his four chances to break Ymer's serve while saving seven of the nine he faced. He won 39 of 48 first-service points (81.3 percent), continuing a recent stretch of good form that included a run to the finals at the Erste Bank Open in Austria.
Lucky loser Jozef Kovalik of Slovakia made the most of his second chance in Stockholm and defeated Germany's Peter Gojowczyk 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-5. Gojowczyk was supposed to face American Marcos Giron, but Giron withdrew with an unspecified illness.
Kovalik saved nine of 11 break points. Gojowczyk smashed 11 aces but committed seven double faults.
In other first-round action, Serbian Filip Krajinovic defeated Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-4, 6-2 in about 64 minutes, and Italy's Andrea Vavassori took down Russia's Pavel Kotov 6-3, 6-4.
--Field Level Media
