Former Top 10 player Jurgen Melzer completed an emotional win in front of home fans on Tuesday at the Generali Open in Kitzbuhel, recording his first ATP World Tour main draw victory in nearly a year by defeating Taro Daniel, 6-4, 7-6(4).
Fittingly, his last ATP World Tour win came last year in Kitzbuhel. Melzer, a wild card into this year’s tournament, had been sidelined for nine months due to injury and underwent left shoulder surgery in November. He played the first tournament of his comeback last month at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Poprad Tatry, Slovakia.
Melzer, the 2008 runner-up in Kitzbuhel, now has a mouth-watering second-round clash against top seed Dominic Thiem. Their only previous meeting was a second-round match in Kitzbuhel in 2013, which Thiem won in straight sets.
WATCH: Gerald Tested In Jurgen Quiz At Kitzbuhel
Earlier in the day, Jurgen’s little brother, Gerald Melzer, gave the home crowd something to cheer about by rallying from a set down to win his first-round match over 2011 finalist Albert Montanes, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4.
The victory on Centre Court avenged his opening-round loss to Montanes in Kitzbuhel last year. Gerald, ranked No. 107 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, trailed 4-5 in the second set before winning the next five games. The win marked his first ATP World Tour main draw win of the season. He has been excelling on the ATP Challenger Tour, winning three titles in the first two months of 2016.
Next up for Gerald is qualifier Daniel Gimeno-Traver. The Spaniard won their only previous career meeting in 2014 in Hamburg.
Nikoloz Basilashvili recorded the upset of the tournament so far by defeating fifth seed Lukas Rosol, 6-4, 7-6(4). The Georgian rallied from 3/4 down in the tie-break to take the last four points. He’ll play Igor Sijsling for a spot in the quarter-finals. Basilashvili leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 2-0, with both wins coming this year in ATP Challenger Tour events.
In other first-round matches, sixth seed Dusan Lajovic withstood a difficult opening set before moving past Rogerio Dutra Silva, 7-6(7), 6-1. Eighth seed Jan-Lennard Struff saved all five break points against him and needed just 52 minutes to advance past wild card Akira Santillan, 6-2, 6-2.
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