Top seed Andy Roddick fought off Australian Chris Guccione 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 at the San Jose Open on Wednesday, setting up a second round tie with Japanese teenager Kei Nishikori.
Nishikori beat Diego Hartfield of Argentina 7-5, 6-3 while third seed Tommy Haas also scored a first round win over Robert Kendrick 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
In second round matches, fourth seed Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic overcame American Bobby Reynolds 7-5, 7-6. Robby Ginepri of the United States beat eighth seed Kristof Vliegen of Belgium 6-2, 6-3.
He broke Guccione to 3-1 in the first set and comfortably sat on the lead to win the set. But the Australian showed his fighting qualities to take the second set in a tiebreaker, coming back from 3-0 down to tun off seven points in a row.
The final set went to another tiebreaker, which Roddick sealed 7-5 with an unreturnable second serve.
Nalbandian prevails
Top-seed David Nalbandian ground out a 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 win over Italy's Fabio Fognini on Wednesday to reach the quarters of the Buenos Aires Cup, adds Reuters.
Nalbandian, ranked 11th in the world, took two hours and 18 minutes to dispose of his opponent on his home turf at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club.
Nalbandian, who has not won a tournament on home soil in his four previous attempts, will face Potito Starace in his last eight match after the Italian beat Argentina's Juan Brzezicki 6-3, 6-3. Starace is returning to the circuit after serving a six week ban imposed by the ATP for a betting offence.
Fifth-seed Nicolas Almagro beat fellow Spaniard Oscar Hernandez 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 to progress. He admitted the heat had taken its toll.
He will meet Juan Ignacio Chela in the quarter-final after the local player eased past Brazil's Thomaz Belluci 6-4, 6-4.
Bopanna-Aisam lose
India’s Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan were shown the door in the first round men’s doubles match here.
The Indo-Pak pair lost to Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Jamie Murray of Britain 6-4, 6-4. The third-seeded duo of Mirnyi and Murray will meet Belgian Steve Darcis and Kristof Vliegen in the second round.
Sunitha, Betina win
Meanwhile, Sunitha Rao and her Argentine partner Betina Jozami played out of their skin to register a come-from-behind win and advance to the women’s doubles second round of USD 185,000 Copa Colsanitas Santander WTA event, adds PTI from Columbia.
After failing to win a single game in the first set, the Indo-Argentine duo fought back to beat the Czech-Brazilian pair of Andrea Hlavackova and Fernanda Maria Alves 0-6, 6-4, 10-8.