Picture Credit: Twitter
The warm-up event to the much-awaited grass court tournament Wimbledon 2023 is underway in Germany. The grass-court tournament Halle Open, also known as the Terra Wortmann Open is being played at the iconic OWL Arena in Halle from June 19 with the finals scheduled for June 25, 2023.
While the day 1 of the tournament saw Russian Daniil Medvedev and Greece’s star player Stefanos Tsitsipas progress to the Round of 16 after respective wins, the day also had some startling, hard-fought battles on the grass. While sixth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz withstood a strong challenge from American Christopher Eubanks, third seeded Andrey Rublev defeated Wu Yibing 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2 to progress into second round.
The day also saw home favourite and ninth-seeded Alexander Zverev beat Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-4 in a 79-minute battle. It is to be noted while Zverev entered this tournament as a favourite, Thiem was a wild card entrant. Both players made their maiden appearance on the grass court, since 2021.
“I’m happy to get the win,” said Zverev after his much- awaited win. “Obiviously grass is a difficult surface to get a rhythm on. It was a typical grass match, in a way, one break in each set. All-in-all I’m happy to be through and hopefully will have some more matches here,” he added.
With this 79-minute win, Zverev improved to 4-8 in his ATP head-to-head record with Thiem. The home favourite will next face Denis Shapovalov in the Round of 16 on Wednesday, June 21.
