Hamburg Open: Ruud comes through tough battle with Baez to make second round

Casper Ruud came through a thorough examination against talented clay-courter Sebastian Baez 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 to move into the second round of the Hamburg Open at Am Rothenbaum.

Baez gave the Norwegian problems to overcome by taking him into a final set after outplaying the top seed in the second stanza.

Ruud steadied the ship impressively in the decider, however, tightening up the errors that had crept into his game and upping his service percentages to win the third and get over the line.

Ruud, ranked No 4 in the world, will play another South American in the form of Chilean qualifier Cristian Garin next.

Hamburg ATP500, other first-round results (Am Rothenbaum, clay, EUR 1.831.515, most recent results first):

• Andrey Rublev (2) beat Bernabe Zapata Miralles: 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (7)
• Dusan Lajovic beat Miomir Kecmanovic (8): 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
• Zhizhen Zhang beat Jan Choinski (Q): 6-4, 7-5
• Yannick Hanfmann beat Francisco Cerundolo (5): 4-6, 6-2, 4-2 ret.
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (7) beat Pedro Cachin: 2-6, 7-5, 6-2
• Arthur Fils beat Daniel Elahi Galan (LL): 7-5, 7-5
• Alexander Zverev (4) beat Alex Molcan: 6-0, 6-3
• Jozef Kovalik (LL) beat Thiago Seyboth Wild (Q): 7-6 (6), 6-4
• Cristian Garin beat Hugo Dellien: 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-3
• Maximilian Marterer (WC) beat Rudolf Molleker (WC): 7-6 (2), 6-2
• Lorenzo Musetti (3) beat Elias Ymer (Q): 6-4, 6-1
• Daniel Altmaier beat Richard Gasquet: 7-5, 6-4
• Guido Pella beat Thiago Monteiro (LL): 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
• Laslo Djere beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry (6): 7-6 (2), 6-3
• Luca Van Assche beat Alexandre Muller: 7-6 (3), 6-4