Rublev, Khachanov move through, Karatsev and Shapovalov crash out at ABN AMRO WTT Rotterdam

Day two at the Rotterdam Open brought us several interesting results with Rublev and Khachanov advancing while Shapovalov and Karatsev crashed out.

THe first match of the day was between Aaslan Karatsev and Tallon Griekspoor. The Russian was the overwhelming favourite in this match and he certainly played like it early on taking the opening set with 6-2. In the 2nd set, Karatsev was cruising as he had a 5-2 lead and it seemed like he would close it out easily. He threw away the lead and lost the set in the tiebreak (7-2).

He was up a break twice in the 3rd set and even served for the match but once again threw it away. He collapsed again in the tiebreak losing it 0-7 and crashing out of the event. In the 2nd set, Karen Khachanov faced Alexei Popyrin and it was expectedly a very close match. Popyrin won the opening set with 7-6(4). Khachanov came out furious in the 2nd set winning it 6-1.

The final one ended in a tiebreak with Khachanov winning 8-6. The 2nd seeded Rublev cruised easily in his match against Laaksonen. Rublev did not force the issue too much playing balanced tennis and attacking only when he saw a chance. It worked and he cruised 6-4 6-4 against the Swiss player who can be tricky to beat.

Denis Shapovalov arrived in Rotterdam with hopes of building upon a solid outing in Australia yet he disappointed once more. Facing qualifier Lehecka, Shapovalov played a very lacklustre match against a player that is a level below Shapovalov at the very least. The Canadian struggled serving and missed a lot of easy balls crashing out 4-6 4-6 against a player ranked outside of the top 100.