French Open runner-up Cobolli beaten in Halle first round

French Open runner-up Flavio Cobolli was beaten by Frances Tiafoe in Halle on Monday in his first match since losing the French Open final to Alexander Zverev just over a week ago.

The US’s Tiafoe won 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) in western Germany as the sixth seeded Italian failed to get going in the Wimbledon grass warm-up.

Second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada – who lost to Cobolli in the last eight in Paris – fared better this time, beating Nuno Borges 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

German top seed Zverev enters the singles fray in Halle on Tuesday in his first solo outing since his maiden Grand Slam triumph. He takes on Czech Vit Kopriva.

Zverev has already taken to the Halle courts though and won his doubles opener alongside Brazilian Marcelo Melo. They got past Alexander Bublik and Zizou Bergs 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 10-5 in a match tie-break.

Fellow German Daniel Altmaier outduelled Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili in his singles first-round match and there were also wins for Learner Tien and Terence Atmane.

Wimbledon starts on June 29.