Google News
Competing in front of the home crowd at his seventh ATP tournament in a career, a former University of Southern California star Yannick Hanfmann has scored his eight ATP win with a commanding 6-2 6-4 win over Marcos Baghdatis. Last year's quarter-finalist here in Munich played one of his best matches on the Tour so far, losing 12 points in nine service games and never facing a break point.
Baghdatis was far from those numbers in his service games and he had to play against 11 break points, losing serve on three occasions to end his run in the opening round. Hanfmann was off to a strong start, creating eight break points in the opening three return games and setting the tone for the rest of the match.
Marcos played a little bit better in set number two but it wasn't enough to stay in touch with an impressive rival, losing his serve early in the set with no chance to pull the break back until the end of the encounter. The German earned a break in the opening game of the match after a forehand error from Baghdatis and he settled into a nice rhythm on serve, losing one point in the first three service games to build a 5-1 lead.
Baghdatis saved three break points in game three but his shots were all over the place in the early stages of the match, getting broken again in game five following another forehand error. Hanfmann completed the set with a forehand cross court winner in game eight, hoping for more of the same in the rest of the match.
Marcos blasted two service winners at the start of set number two but Yannick broke him next time around after a double fault from the Cypriot, opening a 2-1 lead and sailing through the remaining service games to reach the last 16.
Baghdatis found his rhythm in the rest of the set but only in his games and Hanfmann sealed the deal with a service winner in game 10, happy with the way he performed and motivated to repeat that in the battle for the quarters against the top seed and defending champion Alexander Zverev. First round results:
ALSO READ: April 29, 2002: 15-year-old Rafael Nadal makes first big professional step