Chardy Saves 5 M.P. At Murray River Open
Jeremy Chardy saved five match points to scrape past No. 11 seed Marin Cilic of Croatia on Monday night at the Murray River Open.
Chardy recovered from 3-6 down in the deciding set tie-break and saved two further match points at 6/7 and 7/8 in a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(8) win over former World No. 3 Cilic in two hours and 32 minutes. It was Chardy’s first win over Cilic in almost four years (2017 Miami) and he next challenges French compatriot Gilles Simon or Sweden’s Elias Ymer.
[WATCH LIVE 3]Alex Bolt beat fellow Australian and pre-season training partner Thanasi Kokkinakis, who was playing his first tour-level match since the 2019 US Open, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 54 minutes.
“It’s always tough,” said Bolt, who will next face American Mackenzie McDonald in the second round. “We basically trained all pre-season together. So it’s not the best when you have to play someone you know really well. I probably started off a little bit erratic, not as good as I’d like to.”
World No. 265 Jason Kubler will play Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis after he knocked out ninth seed Lorenzo Sonego of Italy 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and eight minutes. “It’s good for my confidence that after injury I’m heading in the right direction,” said Kubler. “It’s probably my second best [win] ever I reckon. I had a good win [in the 2018] US Open first round [over Roberto Bautista Agut].”
Elsewhere, French No. 10 seed Adrian Mannarino defeated Mikael Ymer of Sweden 7-5, 6-2 in one hour and 32 minutes. It was Mannarino’s first win of the season after he lost to Cameron Norrie in the Delray Beach Open by VITACOST.com first round last month.