John Millman battled past Alexei Popyrin 7-6 (7-3) 3-6 7-5 on Centre Court after almost three hours in the inaugural match of the BMW Open in Munich.
Both players faced a combined 31 break points during the match. The first set went on serve en route to the tie-break after each player saved three break points. Popyrin went up a mini-break to take a 3-0 lead in the tie-break. Millman came back by winning seven points with three mini-breaks.
Popyrin earned the break in the second game and saved six break points to open up a 3-0 lead. Millman saved three break points to hold serve at deuce in in the eighth game. Popyrin served out the second set6-3 at deuce.
Millman got a break in the eighth game of the third set to take a 5-3 lead. Popyrin broke straight back in the ninth game and saved two break points to hold serve to hold serve at deuce. Millman converted his second break point in the 12th game to win the third set 7-5.
Millman will face either Egor Gerasimov or Guido Pella.
Ilya Ivashka broke five times in his 6-1 6-2 win over Emil Ruusuvuori after 67 minutes. Ivashka pushed Rafael Nadal to three sets in Barcelona last week.
Ricardas Berankis overcame beat Maximilian Marterer 7-6 (12-10) 6-3, Marterer earned the first break in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead. Merankis broke straight back in the fifth game and held serve at love to draw level to 3-3. Both players traded two mini-breaks to draw level to 4-4. Marterer earned his third mini-break to take a 10-9 lead to earn a set point, but Berankis won the final three games to take the tie-break 12-10. Berankis earned his only break in the second game to claim the second set 6-3.
Berankis will face top seed Alexander Zverev, who will be bidding to win his thrd title in Munich after his previous two triumphs in 2017 and 2018. Zverev played at this tournament for the first time in 2014 as a 17-year-old player.
The other top in action in Munich is Russia’s Aslan Karatsev, who beat Novak Djokovic in a hard-fought three-set marathon semifinal match before losing to Matteo Berrettini in a final-set tie-break in the final in Belgrade. Karatsev, who reached the Australian Open semifinal and won the Dubai title, will face either qualifier Cedrik Marcel Stebe or Federico Coria in the second round.
Casper Ruud will play for the third time in Munich two weeks after reaching the semifinal at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. The Norwegian player will face either tw-time Australian Open quarter finalist Tennys Sandgren or Pablo Cuevas.
Sebastian Korda, who will face Daniel Elahi Galan in the opening round, is set to continue his good season after reaching the semifinals in Miami a few weeks ago.
