Eighth seed Emil Ruusuvuori rallied from a set down to see off wild card Mikael Ymer of Sweden and start his Nordea Open campaign with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory on Tuesday.
The Finnish player lost the first five games of the match, but he saved six of the seven break points he faced in the second set to level the score against Ymer, who was seeking to become the first home champion in Bastad since Robin Soderling in 2011. Ruusuvuori won 75 per cent (18/24) of points behind his first serve en route to victory in two hours and three minutes.
“It was a very difficult start for me. I was very slow getting into the conditions, and it was much slower than I thought,” Ruusuvuori said. “But slowly I got into it, and I just started playing smarter. Point by point, I felt like I was a little bit better. It was a tough fight in the end, and this time it came home so it was a good match in the end.”
Ruusuvuori improved to 2-0 in his ATP Head2Head against Ymer, and will next face Norbert Gombos. The Slovakian also turned around a one-sided start in his 1-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 victory over Pablo Cuevas to advance after two hours and three minutes.
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Also in action, Danish wild card Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune rallied against Radu Albot to set up a second-round meeting with top seed Casper Ruud. After being down a set and a break, the 18-year-old raised his level and claimed 12 of the next 13 games to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.
Sixth seed Lorenzo Musetti suffered a first-round upset at the hands of Switzerland's Henri Laaksonen. The qualifier converted six of the 24 break points he created en route to a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 win over the 19-year-old Italian. Seventh seed Jiri Vesely also advanced, as he cruised against Salvatore Caruso 6-3, 6-2 to next face Yannick Hanfmann.
