Almaty Open: Karatsev upsets Zheng to reach second round

Russian qualifier Aslan Karatsev reached the second round of the Almaty Open by defeating Chinese Zhizhen Zhang, the No 6 seed, 6-4, 7-6 (2) at Almaty Arena on Tuesday afternoon.

Karatsev, ranked No 139, will play the winner of the match between Alexander Shevchenko and qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin next.

Almaty ATP 250, other first-round results (Almaty Arena, hard, USD 1.036.700, most recent results first):

• Timofey Skatov vs. Tomas Machac
• James Duckworth vs. Aleksandar Vukic
• Alexander Shevchenko vs. Mikhail Kukushkin
• Daniel Evans (Q) beat Taro Daniel: 6-2, 7-6 (4)
• Beibit Zhukayev (WC) beat Benjamin Hassan (Q): 6-4, 6-1
• Otto Virtanen beat Fabio Fognini: 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Gabriel Diallo beat Christopher O’Connell: 7-6 (5), 6-2
• Adrian Mannarino (8) beat Roman Safiullin: 5-7, 7-6 (4), 6-3
• Borna Coric beat Fabian Marozsan (7): 6-4, 7-6 (4)
• Maximilian Marterer beat Damir Dzumhur: 7-5, 6-4
• Justin Engel (WC) beat Chak Lam Coleman Wong: 7-5, 6-4