CHENNAI, India — Fifth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain rallied for a 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-3 win over Evgeny Donskoy, while Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun scored an easy 6-3, 6-4 win over local hope Somdev Devvarman in the first round of the Chennai Open on Tuesday.
Garcia-Lopez shook off early rustiness to beat his Russian opponent while Lu sailed through in one hour, 20 minutes.
"It’s always tough in the beginning of the year and I’ve done pretty well," Lu said. "I got the timing early and took control. I did not want to give him a chance to come back in the match and kept attacking the ball."
In other keenly fought matches, Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis defeated Italian qualifier Luca Vanni 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 and Swedish wild-card entrant Elias Ymer got past Dutch player Igor Sijsling 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
The 83rd-ranked Berankis, the only Lithuanian to have broken into the top 100, breezed to a one-set lead but then had to see off a determined challenge as Vanni hit 10 aces during the next two sets.
On the adjacent court, 18-year-old Ymer saved three break points in the first set and then took control of the decider to pull off an impressive victory over 81st-ranked Sijsling.
Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain, Japan’s Tatsuma Ito and Aljaz Bedene of Slovakia also advanced to the second round.
Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka will start the defence of his Chennai title on Wednesday against Croatia’s Borna Coric.