Munich Open: Former champion Martin Klizan rallies to defeat Florian Mayer to progress to second round

Munich: Former champion Martin Klizan rallied to surprise home player Florian Mayer 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the Munich Open on Monday. [caption id=“attachment_4452217” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Martin Klizan in action. Reuters[/caption] The 122nd-ranked Slovak, who won the clay-court tournament in 2014, was 3-0 down in the deciding set but recovered by winning the next six games to take the match in just over two hours. Mayer says, “I ran out of steam in the end. I can’t blame myself too much.” German wild cards Yannick Hanfmann and Matthias Bachinger fared better. Bachinger defeated Mikhail Kukushkin 7-6 (8), 3-6, 6-3 and Hanfmann had little difficulty beating Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-2, 6-4. Seeded players Philipp Kohlschreiber, Yuichi Sugita, Gael Monfils and Fabio Fognini were among those scheduled to play on Tuesday.