Bellucci upsets seventh seed Davidovich Fokina

#NextGenATP star Martin Landaluce notched his first tour-level grass-court win Monday at the BOSS OPEN, where he outlasted Pierre-Hugues Herbert 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the second round.

Competing in his maiden tour-level grass-court match, Landaluce dropped the first set but fought back to seal the triumph in two hours and 18 minutes. The #NextGenATP star won 74 per cent (43/58) of his first-serve points, according to Infosys ATP Stats and capitalised on a nervy serving performance from Herbert, who fired 13 aces and produced 12 double faults.

While this was only his first tour-level grass-court match, last season, Landaluce notched an 8-4 record on the surface across all levels, including runs to the semi-finals at the Lexus Nottingham Open (an ATP Challenger Tour event) and the final round of qualifying at Wimbledon.

The next test for the 20-year-old in Stuttgart will be a second-round meeting with defending champion and second seed Taylor Fritz. Fritz recently lost to Nishesh Basavareddy in the first round at Roland Garros.

Earlier in the day, Mattia Bellucci upset seventh seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-1 in the opening round. With the triumph, the Italian took a 2-1 lead in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series, having also defeated the Spaniard in the second round in Acapulco in February.

In other action at the ATP 250 in Stuttgart, the match between Roman Safiullin and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard was suspended due to rain with Safiullin leading 5-7, 7-6(4), 4-1. The winner will face Belgian Qualifier Gauthier Onclin, who defeated Fabian Marozsan 7-6(6), 6-3 to advance to the second round.