Adelaide International: Lorenzo Sonego, Jiri Lehecka, Daniel Evans Move into second round

Lorenzo Sonego saved two match points to move past Yannick Hanfmann 7-5, 2-6, 7-6(9) in a first-round battle at the Adelaide international in Australia on Wednesday.

After two hours and fifty-five minutes, the 28-year-old Italian, who has won eight of his previous nine matches in the opening round, saved match points at 5/6 and 7/8 in the third-set tie-break.

Sonego will take on third seed Sebastian Korda in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, where he now leads Hanfmann 2-0.

With a quick 6-1, 6-3 victory over Australian qualifier Adam Walton, Jiri Lehecka also advanced quickly to the Adelaide International’s second round on Tuesday.

Despite having lost eight of his previous nine matches, the 22-year-old Czech advanced after 71 minutes of play after playing a dominant match against Walton in their first-ever Lexus ATP Head2Head showdown.

Lehecka defeated Walton to record his maiden victory on Australian soil, and he went on to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in Melbourne last year. Next up is Dusan Lajovic, who is ranked sixth.

In other action, the ATP 250 saw Jordan Thompson, Christopher O’Connell, and Alex Bolt all advance to the second round.

In one hour and twenty-five minutes, Thompson—who last week overcame Rafael Nadal en route to the Brisbane semi-finals—beat Argentine qualifier Facundo Diaz Acosta 6-2, 6-2. The fourth-seeded Italian player, ranked 47th in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, will face him next.

wild card In his first tour-level victory in Australia since 2022—when he defeated Diego Schwartzman at the Australian Open—O’Connell defeated French qualifier Arthur Rinderknech 6-4, 6-4. Of his first-serve points, O’Connell won 94% (29/31). The 29-year-old and Alexander Shevchenko will next meet.

Brazilian lucky loser Thiago Seyboth Wild was defeated by qualifier Bolt 6-3, 6-2. Next up for him is top seed Tommy Paul. Unfortunately, Rinky Hijikata was not able to advance four Australians to the next round. In the last match of the day in Adelaide, Daniel Evans defeated the wild card 6-3, 6-4.

The Britishman will now play Alexander Bublik in the second round; Bublik had earlier won 6-2, 6-3 against James McCabe.