ATLANTA: Rising US talent Jack Sock eased past Colombian Alejandro Gonzalez 6-2, 6-4 but Uzbek Denis Istomin put a dent in the large home field in the first round of the Atlanta Open on Tuesday.

On a day for the local contenders, 21-year-old Sock, who teamed up with Canadian Vasek Pospisil to win a surprise Wimbledon doubles crown earlier this month, underlined his promise by swatting aside Gonzalez in just over an hour and will face Aussie qualifier Michael Venus.

Americans Robby Ginepri and Tim Smyczek advanced, but sixth seed Istomin was too strong for Rajeev Ram, winning 6-1, 6-4 to book a second-round date with Slovakian Lukas Lacko, who downed US wildcard Nathan Pasha 6-2, 7-5.

In the only three-set match, Ginepri fought off eight of 11 break points to beat Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 7-6, 3-6, 6-0 while Smyczek beat fellow American Ryan Harrison 6-0, 6-2.

In other first round action, hot-headed Australian eighth seed Marinko Matosevic topped Dominican Republic’s Victor Estrella Burgos 6-0, 6-2 and next faces Smyczek.

Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko ousted Aussie John-Patrick Smith 6-4, 6-4 to book a second-round date with fourth-seeded Pospisil.

Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker downed Canada’s Steven Diez 6-1, 6-2 and will face South African second seed Kevin Anderson, last year’s Atlanta runner-up, in round two.

Benjamin Becker of Germany defeated Australia’s Matthew Ebden 6-4, 6-2 and will next face either US lucky loser Alex Kuznetsov or Taiwan seventh seed Lu Yen-Hsun.

HAASE MAKES WINNING START

GSTAAD: Last year’s finalist Robin Haase had to fight through an extended case of first-match nerves to advance over Aleksandr Nedovyesov 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3 on another rainy day at the Swiss Open on Tuesday.

Two-time champion Thomaz Bellucci won his first-round match, beating Gerald Melzer of Austria 6-3, 6-4.

The 93rd-ranked Brazilian, who next plays fifth-seeded Federico Delbonis of Argentina, won two of his three career titles on clay in the Swiss mountains, in 2009 and 2012.

Top-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, the defending champion, begins against Kenny De Schepper after the Frenchman beat Filippo Volandri of Italy 6-3, 7-6 (7-3).

Sixth-seeded Gilles Simon was unable to complete his first-round match due to a back injury. The Frenchman retired when trailing 6-2, 3-2 against Pablo Andujar of Spain.

German Jan-Leonard Struff was leading 6-2, 1-0 when Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer retired from their first-round match with a left adductor strain.

Swiss wild card Yann Marti finished off a match halted on Monday, beating Daniel Gimeno-Traver 5-7, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-5) while Blaz Rola of Slovenia beat Brazil’s Fabiano De Paula 6-4, 6-4.

CIRSTEA, SVITOLINA WIN

BAKU (Azerbaijan): Top seed Sorana Cirstea of Romania struggled past wild card Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 6-3, 6-3 to open her account in the Baku Cup on Tuesday.

Cirstea previously had trouble with Jabeur in Doha last year. This time, they shared 15 double faults and 11 service breaks before Cirstea prevailed.

Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, who won her maiden WTA title here last year and was back as the second seed, defeated qualifier Nigina Abduraimova of Uzbekistan 6-2, 6-4.

However, three seeds lost: third-seeded Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia to qualifier Misa Eguchi of Japan, fourth seed Kurumi Nara of Japan to Francesa Schiavone, who landed less than half of her first serves, and seventh seed Heather Watson of Britain to Kristina Mladenovic of France, who leads their head-to-heads 3-2.

Published in Dawn, July 24th , 2014