Thiem Downs Paire; Stan To Meet Murray At Challenger 175

You don’t have to look hard to find enticing early-round contests at this week’s ATP Challenger Tour 175 event in Bordeaux, France.

Several Grand Slam champions are among the Bordeaux field, including Dominic Thiem, who rallied from a set down Tuesday to escape Benoit Paire at the BNP Paribas Primrose. Stan Wawrinka also earned a victory to set a blockbuster clash against Andy Murray.

The Austrian Thiem overcame early serve trouble to get past home favourite Paire 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 at the clay-court event. After winning just seven of 14 points off his first delivery in the opening set, Thiem dropped just six first-serve points the rest of the match.

The 2020 US Open champion, who was a semi-finalist at last week’s Challenger event on home soil in Mauthausen, will next face another Frenchman, eighth seed Corentin Moutet.

Paire also enjoyed a strong run at a Challenger event last week, reaching the final at the Francavilla al Mare Challenger.

In other Bordeaux action, Wawrinka needed just one hour, seven minutes to oust qualifier Ugo Blanchet 6-3, 6-1 and set up a must-watch second-round clash against former World No. 1 Murray (NB 5:45 p.m. local Wednesday).

Wawrinka and Murray, who are each three-time major champions, have met on the biggest stages of the sport, including in two tour-level finals (2008 Doha, 2019 Antwerp) and two Grand Slam semi-finals (Roland Garros 2016, 2017). They’ve also met at the Nitto ATP Finals, in Davis Cup, and at the Olympics. Across 22 tour-level meetings, Murray leads Wawrinka 13-9.

Watch Match Of The Day: Andy Murray vs Stan Wawrinka (NB 5:45 p.m. local)

Earlier this month, Murray captured the Challenger 175 title in Aix-en-Provence, where he beat World No. 17 Tommy Paul in the final. The second seed Murray and Wawrinka are among a stacked bottom half in the Bordeaux draw, alongside Richard Gasquet, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Ugo Humbert, and Mikael Ymer.

In a battle of #NextGenATP Frenchmen, Luca Van Assche survived wild card Harold Mayot 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. In the deciding set, Van Assche fended off seven of eight break points to escape the first round.

Turin:
Several upsets occurred Tuesday at the Piemonte Open Intesa Sanpaolo. Home hope qualifier Federico Gaio defeated eighth seed Oscar Otte 6-4, 7-5 after winning 28 of 35 first-serve points and Salvatore Caruso rallied to upset sixth seed Yosuke Watanuki 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 at the Challenger 175 event.

Wild card Flavio Cobolli and 28-year-old Stefano Napolitano were among the Italians to earn victories on home soil. #NextGenATP star Cobolli cruised past Ukrainian Aleksandr Braynin 6-3, 6-3 while his countryman Napolitano escaped three-time Challenger Tour champion Otto Virtanen 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.

Dominik Koepfer, who was a finalist at last week’s Prague Challenger, needed just one hour, eight minutes to down Giulio Zeppieri and set up a second-round meeting against third seed Juan Pablo Varillas.

Dominik Koepfer in first-round action at the Turin Challenger. Credit: Francesco Panunzio

Lucky loser Gianluca Mager added to Tuesday’s upsets with a 6-1, 7-6(9) victory against seventh seed Aleksandar Kovacevic. The Italian Mager converted his six match point to defeat the World No. 113 Kovacevic, who fought back from 2-5 down in the second set to force a tie-break.

Top-2 seeds Sebastian Baez and Daniel Elahi Galan will begin their Turin campaign on Wednesday.

First round secured 💪

Qualifier Salvatore Caruso takes out No. 6 seed Watanuki 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in Turin#ATPChallenger | @federtennis pic.twitter.com/qFyrUZV9zm

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) May 16, 2023