Russian fourth seed Mikhail Youzhny came back from a break down in the first set to win a tough first round contest against Czech veteran Jiri Vanek at the Chennai Open on Monday.
Youzhny beat Vanek 6-3, 6-2 to set up a second round clash with France's Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who disposed off Indian wildcard Vishnu Vardhan 6-1, 6-2.
"Yes, since I won in two sets it was a good win," said Youzhny.
In a marathon third game, which lasted for 17 minutes, Vanek broke Youzhny's serve to go 2-1 up. But the advantage didn't stay for long as Youzhny shook off the rust and adjusted to the bounce of the surface.
The Russian then hit some clean winners, finding the corners and edging Vanek out of the game. He broke back in the sixth game and the eighth to seal the first set.
"It was a little difficult to get going since I've not played for some time.
"I want to win the tournament but it's a long way to go still. I hope I can play better in the next round."
Once he took charge of the conditions, Youzhny rode the wave to win the second set. Having failed to fire a single ace in the first set (to Vanek's three), the Russian drilled in seven aces and 83 per cent of his first serves to comfortably take the set 6-2.
In the other singles matches of the day, defending champion Xavier Malisse scored a confident 6-4, 6-3 win over Luxembourg's Gilles Muller while Austria's Jurgen Melzer advanced with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Paul Capdeville of Chile.
DOUBLE DELIGHT
Marcos Baghdatis proved the better player and the better charmer.
On a relatively quiet opening day at the Chennai Open, the doubles encounter between Spaniards Rafael Nadal and Bartolome Salva-Vidal, and Marcos Baghdatis and France's Marc Gicquel was to provide the glamour quotient.
And it certainly did!
The first-time pairing of Gicquel and Baghdatis fought hard against the left-handed duo and actually came on top. Nadal and Salva-Vidal, who had finished runners-up to Xavier Malisse and Dick Norman the last time, failed to break Baghdatis' spell on centre court and went down 4-6, 4-6 in an hour and eight minutes.
Nadal and Salva-Vidal failed to convert any of their three break points in the first set, and weren't even given a look-in in the second.
"It's a good warm-up for my coming singles match," said Baghdatis, who plays his first round against the Netherlands' Robin Haase on Tuesday evening. "It is challenging to play doubles and singles in a tournament but I feel good physically."
"They could not break our serve even once, my partner played really well," added the Cypriot with a smile.
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