Taiwanese No. 1 Lu Yen-hsun failed to make the best of a good start at the Geneva Open, exiting in the first round of the singles on Tuesday.
World No. 64 Lu claimed the first set 6-1 against world No. 40 Lukas Rosol, but the Czech fought back to claim a 1-6, 7-6 (7/1), 7-5 victory in 2 hours, 2 minutes and set up a second-round clash with top seed and world No. 9 Stanislas Wawrinka.
The Taiwanese saved five of eight break-point chances, but only converted four of 13. Lu won 101 of the 196 points contested, but still dropped to 1-2 against the Czech.
However, the Taiwanese bounced back on his return to the court later on Tuesday, teaming up with South African doubles specialist Raven Klaasen to cruise past Swiss pairing Henri Laaksonen and Luca Margaroli 6-0, 6-2 in just 48 minutes.
The Taiwanese-South African duo, who are teaming up at next week’s French Open at Roland Garros, saved three of four break-point opportunities and converted six of eight to set up a quarter-final with Frantisek Cermak of the Czech Republic and Jonathan Erlich of Israel, who stunned top seeds Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Jurgen Melzer of Austria 7-6 (7/2), 6-7 (4/7), 10-6.
In the second round of the singles, US Open champion Marin Cilic saved a match point against 17-year-old Russian Andrey Rublev before winning 4-6, 7-6 (9/7), 6-1.
The second-seeded Croatian trailed 6-5 in the second-set tiebreaker to world No. 229 Rublev, who is the French Open junior champion.
Cilic dropped only four points on serve in the decider to set up a quarter-final against Santiago Giraldo of Colombia. Giraldo ousted another Russian, eighth seed Mikhail Youzhny, 6-4, 6-4.
In the first round, former world No. 8 Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, whose season stalled because of a foot injury, exited quickly as Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan won 6-0, 6-2.
In other first-round matches, French qualifier Adrian Mannarino beat Carlos Berlocq of Argentina 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, while Teymuraz Gabashvili was the third Russian to lose, going down 6-3, 6-4 against Federico Delbonis of Argentina.
OPEN DE NICE
Taiwanese wild-cards Hsieh Cheng-peng and Wang Chieh-fu crashed out in the first round of the doubles at the Open de Nice Cote d’Azur on Tuesday as they were overwhelmed 6-0, 6-2 by Roberto Maytin of Venezuela and Andres Molteni of Argentina.
The South American duo saved both break-point chances they faced and converted five of six to complete the crushing victory in just 46 minutes.
In the singles, second seed John Isner hit 16 aces to reach the quarter-finals in a tight all-American contest with Steve Johnson.
Isner was made to play for nearly two hours by world No. 55 Johnson, before sealing a 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 6-3 victory.
“It was a pretty good match, I thought we both played pretty well,” Isner said. “In the third set, I was fortunate to get that break and held on from there.”
Eighth seed Juan Monaco also made it to the quarter-finals after he broke Sam Querrey five times in a 6-3, 6-1 win.
Sixth seed Nick Kyrgios used his strong serve to reach the second round with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 win over Mikhail Kukushkin.
The 20-year-old Kyrgios, who is among the outsiders at the French Open after making the final at the Estoril Open and beating Roger Federer in Madrid, lost only two points on his serve in the second set and converted three of his five break-point chances.
The Australian world No. 30 next faces Dominic Thiem.
French qualifier Gianni Mina advanced when fifth seed Bernard Tomic retired with a virus after losing the opening set 6-2, while James Duckworth rallied past lucky loser Frances Tiafoe 6-7 (5/7), 7-5, 6-2 to set up a second-round match with top seed Gilles Simon.
Tiafoe, a 17-year-old American, has earned a wild card for next week’s French Open.
Seventh seed Jack Sock lost 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 to Dusan Lajovic in the first round and wild-card Lucas Pouille breezed past Tim Smyczek 6-3, 6-0.
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