HALLE, WESTPHALIA/STARNBERG, June 13, 2022

Defending Halle champion Ugo Humbert won his first-round match of the 2022 Terra Wortmann Open. The World No. 50 from France came from behind to fight past Radu Albot of Moldova 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 7-5 on Monday afternoon.

Humbert saved a match point on serve at 5-6 in the second set, then closed out the encounter with the first break of serve for either man in the final game after two hours and 43 minutes. The 23-year-old will next take on either No. 5 seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland or US-American qualifier Maxime Cressy.

Narrowly through 👏@HumbertUgo holds off Albot with a 6-7 7-6 7-5 victory in Halle!#TWO22 pic.twitter.com/PKiz2ToVQr

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) June 13, 2022

Earlier in the day, Pablo Carreno Busta made a winning start to his grass-court season with a 6-3, 7-6(5) victory against #NextGenATP Dane Holger Rune. The No. 6 seed from Spain saved five break points in the third game of the contest, then broke his 19-year-old opponent immediately after to edge in front in the opening set. He did not face another break point to secure victory in one hour and 47 minutes. Up next for Carreno Busta will be the winner of the match between Sebastian Korda from the United States and Cristian Garin of Chile.

Nikoloz Basilashvili knocked out third-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev 7-6(1), 6-4. The 25-year-old Georgian withstood 10 aces and broke Rublev’s serve three times to prevail after one hour and 24 minutes.

“This match meant a lot for me because I have a lot of losses this year. Beating Andrey gives me a lot of confidence for the next matches and I’m looking forward to playing a good match again,” said Basilashvili.

“I played well last year here. For me, the most important [thing] is to focus on my serve. If I’m serving good I can be a really dangerous player.”

Up next for Basilashvili will be either Oscar Otte from Germany or Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic.

In the final match of the day, Ilya Ivashka from Belarus rallied past home favourite Jan-Lennard Struff 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) in two hours and three minutes and awaits the winner of the encounter between World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev of Russia and Belgian David Goffin in the second round.