Eighth seed Feliciano Lopez began his campaign for a second trophy at the J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad on Tuesday with a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory over Federico Delbonis of Argentina in 89 minutes. The 36-year-old Spaniard, who beat Robin Haase for the 2016 title, will now prepare to meet Spaniard Oriol Roca Batalla or Italian Paolo Lorenzi.

Elsewhere, Croatian lucky loser Viktor Galovic recorded just his second tour-level victory to knock out fifth seed Haase of the Netherlands 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in 88 minutes for a second-round encounter against #NextGenATP Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime. Haase finished runner-up at the ATP World Tour 250 clay-court tournament in 2013 (l. to Youzhny) and 2016 (l. to Lopez).

Facundo Bagnis, an Argentine qualifier, who is currently No. 177 in the ATP Rankings, hit 11 aces and recovered from 1-3 down in the second set to beat sixth-seeded Portuguese Joao Sousa 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 54 minutes. He now awaits the winner of a wild-card clash between Swiss Marc-Andrea Huesler or 2010 champion Nicolas Almagro of Spain.

Did You Know?
Lopez has a 24-10 record at the event, which was first held in 1898.

Taylor Fritz feels like this is his time of the ATP World Tour season. The California native is back in the U.S. and back on his favourite surface – hard courts.

The 20-year-old, who fell in five sets in the Wimbledon second round to fourth seed Alexander Zverev earlier this month, will look to reach his second BB&T Atlanta Open quarter-final this week (2016, l. to Isner).

“I feel like I was playing well at Wimbledon, and now I’m coming onto hard court, which is my best surface… I’m playing with a lot of confidence, and I’m feeling good about my game,” Fritz told ATPWorldTour.com.

The #NextGenATP right-hander opens against Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open finalist Ramkumar Ramanathan of India on Tuesday. But first, Fritz took time to talk with ATPWorldTour.com about his ATP Firsts, including the time he almost beat Roger Federer and when he met his future wife on the tennis court as a 12-year-old.

First moment I realised I loved tennis
I’m still waiting for that. (laughs)

First coach and most important lesson he/she taught me
My dad, and it was to have fun with tennis… [I started] when I was 2. Quit for a couple years, though, at like 5 to 6, wasn’t really feeling it anymore, then got back into it… I got burnt out at 4. (laughs)

Watch: Fritz Introduces His Family

First pinch-me moment on the ATP World Tour
When I played Federer in 2016 [at Stuttgart], and I won the second set off him. That’s when I was like, ‘This is happening. What’s going on here?’ I ended up losing the match but just winning the second set on him, I was just like, ‘This is insane. This is a dream.’

I had a chance to win that match. I think I had break points to serve for the match in the third, and what went through my head was like, ‘Oh my God, I might actually beat Federer,’ and that’s what definitely lost it for me.

First thing I bought with prize money
I bought a house… I don’t make that kind of money to buy a mansion in LA… Three-bedroom house.

First time I met my wife
This is funny. The first time I met her we were actually 12, and we were playing doubles. We played against her. She actually beat me in doubles in the Southern California Sectionals… She was playing with Brandon Holt, who plays at USC [University of Southern California] now. [Score was] 4 and 4, maybe? She was pretty good. We didn’t really stand much of a chance.

That’s when we met each other… then we actually really met I guess at Intersectionals in the 16 and unders. And that’s when we kind of became a thing.

Read More: Fritz Weds Raquel Pedraza In California

The 2018 ATP World Tour season has been a breakout campaign for Aussie Alex de Minaur, who continued his rise with a 1-6, 7-6(0), 7-6(5) victory against fellow #NextGenATP player Hubert Hurkacz at the BB&T Atlanta Open on Monday.

“It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but it’s a very important win for me,” De Minaur said. “I managed to dig deep, stay tough and beat a quality opponent.”

De Minaur, the youngest player in the Atlanta field at 19 years, five months, won three fewer points than the Pole in the match. However, he won 76 per cent of second-serve points en route to his 12th tour-level victory of the year (12-11).

The right-hander finished 2017 at No. 208 in the ATP Rankings. But a semi-final showing in Brisbane and his first championship match in Sydney to start the year set De Minaur in the right direction. And thanks to a third-round appearance at Wimbledon, the Aussie is up to a career-best World No. 68. But while trailing a set and a break on Monday, it appeared the teenager was in danger of a first-round exit.

“I just tried to stay positive throughout the whole match, tried to dig deep,” De Minaur said. “I knew that if I could just sort of get my teeth into it, I was going to start playing some better tennis and I played some big points on the big occasions. That got me that second set and then I was able to get that momentum going.”

De Minaur served for the match at 5-4 in the third set, and then held a 4/1 advantage in the final-set tie-break. But while Hurkacz evened the tie-break at 5/5, he could not complete the comeback. At 5/5, Hurkacz hit a big cross-court forehand to elicit an error from De Minaur, but a challenge revealed that his shot missed just wide. And on match point, the 19-year-old struck a backhand return that barely scraped the baseline, clinching his triumph.

De Minaur will next face top seed John Isner, who will be competing in his first match since reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals. In other action, Eastbourne runner-up Lukas Lacko cruised past Indian Prajnesh Gunneswaran 6-2, 6-2 in 52 minutes. Croat Ivo Karlovic led American Donald Young 6-2, 5-5 before heavy rain forced the cancellation of the day’s remaining play.

Third Seeds Hold Off Kyrgios/Kokkinakis
Three of De Minaur’s countrymen were involved in a first-round doubles clash with John-Patrick Smith and American Nicholas Monroe teaming to deny wild card pairing Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios. The No. 3 seeds prevailed 7-6(2), 6-4, withstanding 11 aces and saving all nine break points faced.

British pair Luke Bambridge and Jonny O’Mara dropped just seven first-serve points on their way past Romanian-German duo Marius Copil and Mischa Zverev, 6-4, 6-4, while another Brit, Ken Skupski, teamed with India’s Purav Raja to see off the Lithuanian-Tunisian combination of Ricardas Berankis and Malek Jaziri 6-4, 6-3. Raja/Skupski broke four times in the 67-minute encounter.

Did You Know?
De Minaur entered 2018 with two tour-level match wins. He now owns a 12-11 record this season.