FORLI, September 21, 2020
Top seed Frances Tiafoe opened his title bid at the inaugural Internazionali di tennis Città di Forli with a straight-set win. The World No. 66 from the United States, one of six top 100 players in the field, eased past Tsung-Hua Yang of Taiwan 6-3, 6-0 on Monday afternoon at the Circolo Tennis Villa Carpena in Northern Italy.
Tiafoe, who is coming off a fourth-round finish at the US Open, capitalized on seven of his 12 break point chances to advance after exactly one hour of play. In search of match play ahead of Roland Garros, the 22-year-old Florida resident is competing in his first clay-court tournament in 16 months.
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Tiafoe will next take on either Russian veteran Teymuraz Gabashvili or Italian teenager Lorenzo Musetti. The 18-year-old from Carrara enjoyed a great run into the third round on home soil at the ATP Masters 1000 in Rome last week following five consecutive victories from qualifying, including straight-set wins over Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori.
In the bottom half of the draw, No. 2 seed Cameron Norrie also booked his spot in the second round of the €88,520 ATP Challenger tournament. The World No. 68 from Great Britain, however, had to go the distance against US-American qualifier Christian Harrison. Norrie outpointed his opponent 98-93 to secure a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 victory in two hours and 24 minutes.
Up next for Norrie will be Andrea Pellegrino, who beat Viktor Galovic of Croatia 6-4, 6-4. The encounter lasted one hour and 28 minutes.
Monday Results – First round
Thomaz Bellucci def. Elliot Benchetrit 6-4 6-2
Lloyd Harris def. Andrea Arnaboldi 7-6(4) 1-6 7-6(4)
Thiago Monteiro def. Yuichi Sugita 6-1 7-6(2)
Federico Coria def. Chun-hsin Tseng 7-5 3-6 4-2 rit.
Guilherme Clezar def. Matthias Bachinger 7-6(8) 3-6 6-3
Andrea Pellegrino def. Viktor Galovic 6-4 6-4
Cameron Norrie def. Christian Harrison 7-5 3-6 6-4
Pedro Sakamoto def. Andrea Vavassori 4-6 7-6(5) 6-3
Frances Tiafoe def. Tsung-hua Yang 6-3 6-0
