Sam Querrey beat Alejandro Falla for the second time in less than a week, defeating the Colombian 6-3, 6-3 in a first-round match at the US National Indoor Championships on Tuesday.
Querrey, who won the Memphis title three years ago, hammered six aces and won 74 percent of his first-serve points as he needed just 58 minutes to eliminate Falla.
Fourth seed Querrey also defeated Falla in the quarter-finals of the San Jose tournament on Friday last week.
Querrey, who is the No. 2 ranked American on the ATP Tour, advances to the second round where he faces the winner of a match between Japan’s Go Soeda and Marinko Matosevic of Australia.
Defending champion Jurgen Melzer crashed out of the joint ATP and WTA tournament, losing his opening-round match in straight sets at the Racquet Club of Memphis.
The left-handed Austrian lost to Dutchman Igor Sijsling 6-4, 7-6 (7/3).
Sijsling advanced to a second-round match against Croatian top seed Marin Cilic.
Melzer, who was playing with a broken toe, defeated Milos Raonic in last year’s final.
In the late match, Japanese fifth seed Kei Nishikori cruised past Ilya Marchenko 6-4, 7-5.
American veteran James Blake defeated German Florian Mayer 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
In the women’s singles tournament, Slovakian seventh seed Magdalena Rybarikova reached the third round by ousting Lauren Davis of the US 7-6 (7/2), 6-2.
France’s Claire Feuerstein upset Czech fifth seed Lucie Hradecka 6-3, 6-4, while German third seed Sabine Lisicki reached the second round with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Madison Keys of the US.
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