Taiwanese No. 1 Lu Yen-hsun advanced to the second round of the Atlanta Open on Monday with a straight-sets victory over Malek Jaziri of Tunisia.
World No. 76 Lu survived a second-set fightback to defeat the world No. 77 6-1, 7-6 (14/12) on the hard courts at Atlantic Station.
Jaziri held his serve in the first game, but then Lu won six straight to wrap up the first set in just 24 minutes.
Photo: EPA
Jaziri then rallied in the second, breaking the Taiwanese No. 1 to take a 4-2 lead, but Lu broke back when the Tunisian was serving for the set at 5-4.
In the tiebreaker Lu survived six set points, before converting his third to wrap up the victory in 1 hour, 26 minutes.
Overall, Lu failed to save the single break point he faced, but converted four of five, winning 74 of the 128 points contested to advance to a second-round clash with second seed Vasek Pospisil of Canada, the world No. 29, who received a bye in the first round.
Also advancing to the second round in Atlanta on Monday were seventh seed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, who cruised past Donald Young of the US 6-2, 6-1 in just 66 minutes, and Japan’s Go Soeda, who rallied to edge Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 5-7, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 in 2 hours, 13 minutes.
Lu is also competing in the doubles in Atlanta alongside Britain’s Jonathan Marray.
They have been drawn to play against wild-card US duo Mardy Fish and Andy Roddick in the first round.
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