Hamburg: Thiem wins 250th, Zverev through

Back on clay for the first time since losing the French Open final to Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem beat Pablo Cuevas 6-3 7-6(3) to reach the second round of the Hamburg Open.

The top seed broke Cuevas in the Uruguayan’s first service game of each set, but struggled to press his advantage before closing out the match in one hour and 42 minutes on Tuesday.

It was Thiem’s 250th career tour-level win and set up a second-round meeting with Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics, who a day earlier beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3 6-0.

Thiem’s only previous match since the French Open final was a first-round loss to Sam Querrey at Wimbledon.

Second-seeded German Alexander Zverev pleased his home crowd with a 6-4 6-2 over last week’s Bastad champion Nicolas Jarry, whom he also beat in the Geneva final in May.

“I had decided to go into the match much more aggressive than in the last encounters we played,” Zverev told atptour.com. “If you let him into the match he is unbelievably good and can play very aggressively. When he has to move and run a bit, he might become a little worse, but all-in-all it was a very positive first round for me.”

Next up for Zverev is Federico Delbonis, who beat Marco Cecchinato of Italy 6-7(5) 7-6(3) 6-2.

Third-seeded Fabio Fognini dealt with qualifier Julian Lenz 6-4 6-4, while fourth-seeded Nikoloz Basilashvili — the defending Hamburg champion — beat qualifier Hugo Dellien 6-4 6-3 in just over an hour, and will next face Juan Ignacio Londero.

The day’s surprise result came in an all-Serbian first-round match as fifth-seeded Laslo Djere was beaten 6-3 6-3 by compatriot Filip Krajinovic.

Seventh-seeded Jan-Lennard Struff belted 10 aces as he eased past Thiago Monteiro 6-1 6-3.

Also progressing to the last 16 in Hamburg were Casper Ruud, Pablo Carreno Busta and Richard Gasquet.