INDIANAPOLIS (Indiana), July 15: Defending champ Dmitry Tursunov rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the second set to beat doubles partner Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 7-5 at the ATP Indianapolis Tennis Championships on Monday.

Tursunov had no problems rallying past Kunitsyn to win his fourth match out of five in that series, including a US Open first round two years ago.

American Robby Ginepri, the 2005 winner, lost in the first round for the second straight year at Indy, going down to Chile’s Paul Capdeville 6-4, 6-2 as he dropped serve six times.

Ginepri’s season has been hit or miss, with a surprise French Open fourth round followed by a second-round loss at Queen’s club to Roddick and a Wimbledon first-round exit at the hands of another Chilean, Fernando Gonzalez.

French second seed Gilles Simon got off to a winning start as he advanced over countryman and 2006 quarter-finalist Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

Simon next faces German Benjamin Becker, who knocked out Dane Kristian Pless 6-3, 6-4.

Australian Joe Sirianni, a qualifier, got an easy win as Russian Mikhail Ledovskikh hurt an ankle to hand over a 6-3, 1-2 first-round victory. Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan beat American Justin O’Neal 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (14-12).

Results (prefix number denotes seeding):

First round: Paul Capdeville (Chile) bt 7-Robby Ginepri (US) 6-4, 6-2; 3-Dmitry Tursunov (Russia) bt Igor Kunitsyn (Russia) 6-3, 7-5; 2-Gilles Simon (France) bt Nicolas Mahut (France) 6-2, 3-6, 6-3; Lu Yen-Hsun (Taiwan) bt Justin O’Neal (US) 7-6(2) 7-6(12); Joseph Sirianni (Australia) bt Mikhail Ledovskikh (Russia) 6-3 1-2 (Ledovskikh retired) Benjamin Becker (Germany) bt Kristian Pless (Denmark) 6-3, 6-4.

BARTOLI ADVANCES