Ramos-Vinolas Saves 2 MP, Ousts Seppi

Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas might have arrived in China just one match removed from an eight-match tour-level losing streak. But the World No. 52 fought off two match points in a second-set tie-break at the Shenzhen Open on Monday before beating No. 8 seed Andreas Seppi 6-7(5), 7-6(7), 6-3.

The 30-year-old will try to book his spot in the quarter-finals when he faces Serbian Viktor Troicki, who led Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 5-3 when the Spaniard retired due to a hip injury. Ramos-Vinolas has won both of his FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings against Troicki, and he will be trying to earn his 20th tour-level match win of 2018.

Pierre-Hugues Herbert needed just 64 minutes to beat Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 6-4, 6-3. The Frenchman won 82 per cent of his service points (41/50) to book a second-round meeting against #NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.

On his Shenzhen debut, Brit Cameron Norrie defeated Chinese wild card Di Wu 6-2, 6-2. Norrie, who reached back-to-back semi-finals in Atlanta and Los Cabos, saved all six break points he faced to advance after 70 minutes.

Yoshihito Nishioka dropped just four games in his Shenzhen opener, beating American Denis Kudla 6-1, 6-3 in 59 minutes. The Japanese left-hander converted five of nine break points en route to victory. He will try to reach his second ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season when he faces No. 6 seed Denis Shapovalov or Belarusian Ilya Ivashka.

Did You Know?
Each of the four previous editions of the Shenzhen Open have been won by players ranked inside the Top 15 of the ATP Rankings.