French Next Gen player Luca Van Assche beat Pavel Kotov 6-3 7-5 in 1 hour and 19 minutes to claim the first Masters 1000 win of his career at the Miami Open.
Van Assche broke serve in the eighth game and served out the first set 6-3 on his second set point. Van Assche broke serve in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead. Kotov broke back in the 10th game to draw level to 5-5. Van Assche broke serve in the 11th game and served out the win on his first match game.
Van Assche, who reached the semifinal at the Phoenix ATP Challenger last week, saved four of the five break points he faced and converted three of his six break points. Last season Van Assche pushed Novak Djokovic to the third set in Belgrade.
Van Assche set up a second round match against Casper Ruud. The Frenchman is aiming to win his first top 10 match against Ruud.
“Of course I am very happy to play against Ruud. He is an amazing player. He had amazing results in the past and also now. So we will be ready for this match. I am very excited to play against these kind of players last year and also this year in Australia, so I am very excited about this match. I watched him on the television and he has very good forehand and he is fighting on every point, so I think those are his two big weapons. I did not remember that this was my first win in a Masters 1000. It was a good win. It was a good match today with a lot of intensity and I enjoyed my game during the match”, said Van Assche.
World number 38 Matteo Arnaldi beat Arthur Fils 6-3 6-4 advance to the second round without dropping his serve. Arnaldi set up a second round match against Alexander Bublik, who won the ATP 250 in Montpellier earlier this year.
Arnaldi won 93% of his first serve points. The Italian player broke serve in the second game of the first set and earned three double break points in the fourth game, but Fils saved them. Arnaldi held on his next service games to win the first set 6-3 on his third set point. Arnaldi converted his first break point of the second set in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. Fils saved a match point to hold serve at deuce as he was serving to stay in the match. Arnaldi served out the win at love in the 10th game.
Andrea Vavassori beat Pedro Cachin 6-2 6-2 with two breaks of serve in each set. Vavassori will face this year’s Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner in the third round.
Shang Juncheng moved past Miomir Kecmanovic 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 7-6 (7-5) after 2 hours and 46 minutes to pick up his second Masters 1000 win after reaching the Indian Wells second round as a qualifier. Shang converted just 2 of his 13 break points, but he played his best tennis on the most crucial points in the tie-break.
Shang converted his fourth break point in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead. Kecmanovic broke straight back in the eighth game to draw level to 4-4. Shang rallied from 0-3 down to win the tie-break 7-5. Both players traded breaks in the first two games of the second set. Kecmanovic broke serve in the seventh game and served out the second set at 30 in the 10th game. Kecmanovic broke serve in the first game of the third set to open up a 2-0 lead. Shang broke straight back in the eighth game to draw level to 4-4. Kecmanovic saved two match points in the 10th game to hold serve at deuce. Shang opened up a 3-0 lead in the tie-break. Kecmanovic pulled one of the two mini-breaks. Shang earned his third mini-break to race out to a 5-2 lead, but Kecmanovic won three consecutive points to draw level to 5-5. Shang earned his fourth mini-break to win the tie-break 7-5.
Shang moved up 12 places to world number 112 in the ATP Live Ranking. The Chinese player set up a match against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
