Grass wrap: Zverev through, Jankovic out

From red to green, the grass court season got off to a flying start yesterday, with a slew of seeded players in action.

Johnson, Zverev roll in Stuttgart

Seeded players Steve Johnson and Mischa Zverev have progressed to the second round of the Stuttgart Open.

Johnson, the fifth seed, rallied to defeat German wildcard Maximilian Marterer 3-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-4, and Zverev, the sixth seed, had little difficulty against Malek Jaziri, beating the Tunisian 6-3 6-1 in under an hour.

Also at the grasscourt tournament, Yannick Hanfmann defeated Hungarian qualifier Marton Fucsovics 6-3 7-5, and Jan-Lennard Struff, another German, defeated Slovakian qualifier Lukas Lacko 6-4 7-6 (7-3).

Top seeds Roger Federer, Grigor Dimitrov and Tomas Berdych have byes to the second round, as does fourth-seeded Frenchman Lucas Pouille, who next plays Struff.

Jankovic crashes out

Jelena Jankovic suffered a shock defeat in the opening round of the Ricoh Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

The former world No.1, who is now ranked 60 in the world lost 6-3 7-5 to qualifier Petra Krejsova, who recorded her maiden WTA Tour main draw win.

Sixth seed Timea Babos was also dumped out as home favourite Arantxa Rus won 5-7 7-2 6-3.

Seventh seed Lesia Tsurenko made light work of Elise Mertens 6-4 6-1, while Camila Giorgi beat Varvara Lepchenko 6-2 6-7 (8-6) 6-2.