Hangzhou Open: Kukushkin upsets 5th seed Darderi to reach second round

Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin advanced to the second round of the Hangzhou Open by defeating Italian Luciano Darderi, the No 5 seed, 6-3, 6-4 at the Hengqin International Tennis Center on Wednesday.

This was the first win at the ATP Tour level in 2024 for the Kazakh, who has been ranked as high as No 39 in 2019).

Kukushkin, ranked No 112, will play the winner of the match between fellow Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko and Argentinian qualifier Marco Trungelliti next.

Hangzhou ATP 250, other first-round matches (Hengqin International Tennis Center, hard, USD 1,000,630):

• Fabian Marozsan (7) beat Luca Nardi: 6-0, 6-2
• Zhizhen Zhang vs. Denis Yevseyev
• Aslan Karatsev vs. Mattia Bellucci
• Yibing Wu vs. Chak Lam Coleman Wong
• Corentin Moutet vs. Roberto Carballes Baena
• Sumit Nagal vs. Yasutaka Uchiyama
• Yunchaokete Bu vs. Hugo Gaston
• Alexander Shevchenko vs. Marco Trungelliti
• Rinky Hijikata vs. Damir Dzumhur
• Maximilian Marterer vs. Yoshihito Nishioka
• Marin Cilic vs. Zachary Svajda