Zverev and Ruud through to second round of Olympics, Tsitsipas struggles

Day two of the Paris Olympics tennis events is complete, with seeds Alexander Zverev, Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas all moving through their opening matches.

While Zverev and Ruud looked strong in straight set victories, Tsitsipas had a scare as world No 87 Zizou Bergs pushed him hard for the first hour and a half of their match.

The Greek won a tight opening set 8-6 in a tie-break, before dropping the second set 6-1. The eighth seed rallied, however, powering through the deciding set 6-1 to book a second-round clash against Britain’s Dan Evans.

Zverev and Ruud had no such dramas. Defending a gold medal, Zverev raced past Spaniard Jaume Munar for the loss of just four games, 6-2, 6-2. Ruud had a tougher opening set against Japan’s Taro Daniel, but pulled away in the second to win 7-5, 6-1.

Mixed day for seeds in men’s singles

Other seeded players in the men’s draw also advanced, with Tommy Paul, Ugo Humbert, Lorenzo Musetti, Sebastian Baez and Felix Auger-Alissime all winning in straight sets.

Musetti’s effort was particularly impressive, with the Italian having played in a three-hour long final at the Umag Open on Saturday night. He made sure his court time was minimised in the opening round, whipping past home favourite Gael Monfils 6-1, 6-4 to set a clash against Argentine Mariano Navone in the round of 32.

Seeds 14 through 16 fell however, with Arthur Fils losing to young Italian Matteo Arnaldi, Alejandro Tabilo crashing out at the hands of Roman Safiullin and Aussie Alexei Popyrin continuing Nicolas Jarry’s poor stretch of form.

Jarry has now lost four matches in a row since making the final of the Rome Masters in early May.

Other notable results from day two of the men’s singles event include Francisco Cerundolo – champion of the Umag Open on Saturday – also backing up impressively to defeat Chile’s Tomas Barrios Vera. 6-2, 6-1.

Jack Draper kept his hopes of an Olympic medal alive with a straightforward win over former world No 4 Kei Nishikori, while Milos Raonic and Dominik Koepfer played an epic on Cout 7, won 6-7(, 7-6(5), 7-6(1) by Koepfer.

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