Wu Spoils Kyrgios Return In Stuttgart

Before Tuesday afternoon in Stuttgart, Wu Yibing had not played a match on grass since he was a junior.

That relative inexperience on the surface did not stop the Chinese from notching an impressive opening win at the BOSS OPEN, where he defeated a physically struggling Nick Kyrgios 7-5, 6-3 in the first-round at the ATP 250 event in Germany.

“The last time I played on grass was juniors back in 2017, so six years,” said Wu after his victory. “I was really happy to play Nick in the first round. He’s one of the best players on grass and he served well… He aced me [so many] times. The key for me was to stay cool, stay patient in the game and find a way. I’m happy [with that result].”

Kyrgios, who had surgery to repair a small tear in his left lateral meniscus in January, appeared to be struggling physically from early in the match, at one point telling his team he was unable to ‘walk without pain’.

Wu saved a break point in the opening game with a classy forehand on the run before making his move on return to break Kyrgios in the 12th game and claim the first set. As Kyrgios’ movement grew visibly more restricted, the World No. 64 Wu also claimed the only break of the second set to seal his third Top 30 win.

“It was pretty special because it was very tense, and he was holding his service games pretty easily,” said Wu, when asked about his break to claim the opening set. “I was suffering [on serve] sometimes because he has a better serve than me, but I was patient in the match. I will keep going and work on my serve, and hopefully I can be a better server.”

Wu’s second-round opponent will be Marton Fucsovics after the Hungarian qualifier rallied past Denis Shapovalov 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

After Gregoire Barrere beat Oscar Otte 6-4, 6-3 and Christopher O’Connell defeated Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 6-1, Jan-Lennard Struff was the last remaining hope for a home favourite to reach the second round in Stuttgart. The World No. 24 did not disappoint the local fans, striking his forehand with ferocious power throughout a 6-1, 6-4 victory against Zhang Zhizhen that took just 57 minutes.

Struff’s next opponent will be fifth seed Tommy Paul, who defeated Benjamin Bonzi 6-3, 6-4 to extend his ATP Head2Head series lead against the Frenchman to 3-0. Paul is one of three seeded Americans competing this week in south-west Germany, where Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe are the second and third seeds, respectively.

_{^{American trio Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul share a light-hearted moment at the BOSS OPEN in Stuttgart. Photo: BOSS OPEN.}}

Tiafoe will make his Stuttgart debut on Wednesday, when he faces Jiri Lehecka in the second round. Fritz’s opening opponent will be Aslan Karatsev, after the big-hitting World No. 48 defeated Corentin Moutet 7-6(0), 6-7(8), 7-5 in a three-hour, 10-minute first-round marathon.