Karatsev survives Munar marathon

Last year’s semifinalist Aslan Karatsev, was the last to finish his round one match on day one. He defeated Jaume Munar in just under five hours.

The final score was 3-6, 7⁷-6¹, 6³-7⁷, 6-4, 6-4.

Both players broke each other eight times in the match, and in the end Munar had actually won more points with 188 to Karatsev’s 184.

Karatsev’s attacking style was once again potent, but full of errors. Meanwhile, Munar put on a stunning defence with incredible movement across the court.

In the final set Karatsev took an early 4-1 lead, but Munar slowly surged and made the score 5-4 to Karatsev.

On the Russians serve and it looked like Munar might make a comeback after he played a wonderful defence on match point, and the game went to deuce, but Karatsev won the next two points to win a weary victory.

Karatsev made 107 unforced errors to Munar’s 35, but also hit 87 winners to Munar’s 24.

Karatsev goes on to face Mackenzie McDonald in round two after his victory against Milojevic.

Watch highlights here: