Defending champ Sandgren wins 1st round match in Auckland

Defending champion Tennys Sandgren of United States is into second round of ASB Classic, beating New Zealand doubles specialist Michael Venus 6-4, 6-3. Sandgren won his maiden ATP title in Auckland last year, beating Briton Cameron rrie in final. He looked strong on Monday with 15 aces in a 70-minute win. Venus is ranked 10th in world in doubles but was playing his first singles match since a Davis Cup tie in 2018.

Sandgren broke Venus in third game of first set but dropped serve in next game. At 4-5, 30-30 Venus me two unforced errors which handed first set to American. Sandgren broke Venus in fourth game of second set and held on comfortably.

In or first-round matches on Monday, Brazilian qualifier Thiago Montiero beat last year's runner-up rrie 7-6 (3), 6-2. Sixth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland, who beat world . 4 Dominic Thiem at ATP Cup last week and is seen as one of tour's rising stars, vanced to second round with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Lorenzo Sonego.  top four seeds at tournament, Fabio Fognini of Italy, Denis Shapovalov of Cana, Karen Khachav of Russia and John Isner of United States, are t in action until second round.

Fognini became top seed when Russia's Daniil Medvedev withdrew after playing in ATP Cup semifinals. Isner is a two-time champion in Auckland and is looking to tournament to again give him a strong start to year. "I've won it twice and my first ever ATP win was here in Auckland so I definitely have great memories here," he told reporters. "Throughout my career I've come here a lot, I've played some great tennis here and I'm looking forward to hopefully playing some good tennis again."

Im Credits: Unsplash