Seeds tumble in Stuttgart as Alexander Zverev and Karen Khachanov exit

Shahida Jacobs
Dustin Brown

Top seed Alexander Zverev fell at his first hurdle at the MercedesCup as Dustin Brown accounted for his second-round exit.

Qualifier Brown, the man who famously beat Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2015, claimed only his second ATP Tour-level win of the year – his first coming in the opening round – with a 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3 win over the German.

“I am very, very happy,” he told ATPTour.com. “I didn’t have a good grass-court swing last year and just wanted to come and play very good tennis. Stuttgart is a little bit at altitude and I think that helped my game.

“I’ve won three very good matches, two in qualifying and one against [John] Millman. The court played a little slower today and it was tough especially against Alex, who is a very good returner. So I had to make a lot of first serves and the break in the first set helped me to gain confidence.”

Next up for Brown is Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime after the seventh seed beat Gilles Simon of France 7-5, 6-4 in one hour and 30 minutes.

Second seed Karen Khachanov also crashed out as the world No 9 was beaten 6-4, 6-2 by Matteo Berrettini.

The Italian will face Denis Kudla for a place in the semi-final after the American caused another upset with a 7-5, 6-7 (3-7), 6-7 (3-7) win over fifth seed Gael Monfils from France.

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