Bastad Open: Alexander Zverev reaches second round as Leo Borg claims maiden ATP Tour win on home turf in Sweden
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Published 19/07/2023 at 06:59 GMT
There was a famous Swedish name on the winners' list at the Bastad Open when Leo Borg, the son of 11-time major champion Bjorn, claimed the first Tour-level victory of his career against Elias Ymer. The 20-year-old faces Federico Coria next. Fifth seed Alexander Zverev is also through after edging out Alex Molcan in three sets, but several seeded players fell at the first hurdle.
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Leo Borg, the son of tennis legend Bjorn Borg, claimed his first ATP Tour-level victory on home soil at the Bastad Open as fifth seed Alexander Zverev also progressed.
World No. 437 Borg was up against fellow Swede Elias Ymer and triumphed 7-6(5) 6-3 to earn a meeting with Argentina’s Federico Coria in the second round.
The 20-year-old’s father Bjorn won 11 Grand Slam titles during his illustrious career, but Leo was winless on both the ATP Tour and Challenger Tour until his victory on Tuesday.
"I have worked so hard for this for so many years and today was the day I got the result," Borg said.
"I'm very happy with my performance today and how mentally strong I was. Elias and I have a good relationship and overall it was good tennis."
Zverev also tasted victory in Bastad, ousting Alex Molcan 6-4 3-6 7-5 at the clay-court ATP 250 event.
The German, who was knocked out by Matteo Berrettini in the third round of Wimbledon earlier in July, will face Brazilian Thiago Monteiro next.
Zverev knocked Molcan out of Roland-Garros in straight sets last month, but faced a sterner challenge from the Slovakian this time as he failed to serve out the match at 5-3 in the decider and required another break to seal a match lasting almost two-and-a-half hours.
“Obviously, it’s the first clay-court match back after the grass-court season and it’s never easy,” said Zverev.
“He’s an opponent that plays extremely well and at the end of the day I’m happy to be through to the second round. That’s the most important thing.”
The world No. 19 reached the semi-finals on the clay courts of Roland-Garros last month and made the last four in his only previous appearance in Bastad, in 2015.
He will face second seed Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals should he beat Monteiro and the Russian eliminate Pavel Kotov.
Several seeds have already fallen, with Tomas Martin Etcheverry [six] losing to Sebastian Ofner, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina [seven] falling to qualifier Jozef Kovalik and Borg’s next opponent Coria beating eighth seed Sebastian Baez.
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