Defending champion and Spanish third seed Carlos Alcaraz defeats Estonian qualifier Mark Lajal to reach the second round; you can watch the Hamburg, Swiss and Palermo Open, exclusively live on Sky Sports Tennis following the conclusion of Wimbledon.
Carlos Alcaraz endured an early test in his Wimbledon title defence but the Spaniard quelled the challenge of Estonian qualifier Mark Lajal 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 6-2 to move into the second round on Monday.
The 21-year-old Spaniard, seeded third this year, came through in two hours and 22 minutes against Lajal, also 21 but ranked 266 places lower.
The Estonian sported dreadlocks pulled back in a pineapple-style ponytail on his Wimbledon debut.
He took a chunk out of the three-time Grand Slam winner with a break of serve in the opening set.
Lajal broke Alcaraz again early in the next set but he was unable to make the advantage count and his opponent broke back to love immediately before pouncing again in the 11th game.
With the momentum having swung, Alcaraz, who last month added the French Open to his Wimbledon and US Open titles, hit straight back and continued to reel off the points for a two-set lead.
He raised his game further in the third to break with a superb backhand cross-court winner and he never looked back from there to close out the victory.
Jannik Sinner wobbled midway through his Wimbledon first-round clash with unseeded German Yannick Hanfmann but the world No 1 recovered to seal a 6-3 6-4 3-6 6-3 win on Monday and book a meeting with fellow Italian Matteo Berrettini.
The Australian Open champion used his powerful serve and forehand to good effect against Hanfmann as he breezed through the first set on the back of a solitary break and got his nose in front early in the next.
World number two Coco Gauff advanced to the second round with a convincing 6-1 6-2 win over compatriot Caroline Dolehide.
On the eve of this year’s grass-court championships, Gauff admitted she had been “in a dark place” following her opening-round exit in London last year but armed with the knowledge that things “couldn’t get any worse” this time round, she was simply unstoppable against her 51st-ranked rival.
