Steve Johnson, Mischa Zverev progress at Stuttgart Open
STUTTGART: Seeded players Steve Johnson of the United States and Mischa Zverev of Germany progressed to the second round of the Stuttgart Open on Monday.
Johnson, the No. 5, rallied to defeat German wild card Maximilian Marterer 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4, and Zverev, the No. 6, had little difficulty against Malek Jaziri, beating the Tunisian 6-3, 6-1 in under an hour.
Also at the grass-court tournament, Yannick Hanfmann defeated Hungarian qualifier Marton Fucsovics 6-3, 7-5, and Jan-Lennard Struff, another German, defeated Slovakian qualifier Lukas Lacko 6-4, 7-6 (3).
Top seeds Roger Federer, Grigor Dimitrov and Tomas Berdych have byes to the second round, as does the No. 4, French wild card Lucas Pouille, who next plays Struff.
This is the third year the event is being played on grass.