Alexander Zverev has tied Rafael Nadal’s ATP 500 record as he overcame Vit Kopriva 6-3 4-6 6-2 in Halle.
The German played his first match as a Grand Slam champion on home soil as he began his grass court season.
Zverev is the top seed in Halle and is aiming to win a first title at the ATP 500 event and had a scare in his match against Vit Koprova.
However, Zverev bounced back from losing the second set to record a 121st victory at ATP 500 level which ties Rafael Nadal for the most victories in the series since it began in 2009.
After the match Zverev was pleased to have won his first match as a Grand Slam champion with the German now on the road to Wimbledon, “Of course, I’m very pleased and happy to play my first match as a Grand Slam champion in Germany, but I don’t think that affected me too much,” Zverev told the ATP website.
“It was really the change of surface, and my opponent was really good today. I thought he played a fantastic match, and he was hitting his groundstrokes incredibly well, serving unbelievably well. To be honest I’m very pleased with the win because I think it was a difficult match, a difficult opponent, and for the first grass-court match, it was not too bad.”
There were some upsets in Halle though as defending champion Alexander Bublik lost in the first round to Mattia Bellucci 7-6(6) 6-1.
Meanwhile, Joao Fonseca was outclassed by Yannick Hanfmann 6-2 6-2 while Hubert Hurkacz cruised past eighth seed Andrey Rublev 6-3 6-2.
There was a win for fourth seed Daniil Medvedev over Tomas Martin Etcheverry while Nick Kyrgios pulled out of his blockbuster opening round match against Ben Shelton.
