CHENNAI, Jan 2: Spanish world No 2 Rafael Nadal overcame late resistance to reach the Chennai Open second round on Tuesday, but second-seeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis made an early exit.Top seed Nadal defeated Mathieu Montcourt 6-2, 6-4 after the tenacious French baseliner broke his serve and engaged him in long rallies in the final stages.

Baghdatis went down 6-3, 6-4 to unseeded Dutchman Robin Haase, leaving his preparations for the year’s first Grand Slam in tatters.

First round results on Tuesday: Alexandre Koudryavtsev (Russia) bt Prakash Amritraj (India) 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (10-8); Marin Cilic (Croatia) bt Viktor Troicki (Serbia) 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-1; 5-Nicolas Mahut (France) bt Denis Gremelmayr (Germany) 6-3, 6-3; 3-Carlos Moya (Spain) bt Teimuraz Gabashvili (Russia) 6-4, 6-1; Rajeev Ram (US) bt Yuri Schukin (Russia) 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-2); Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spain) bt Alexander Peya (Austria) 6-4, 6-4; 1-Rafael Nadal (Spain) bt Mathieu Montcourt

(France) 6-2, 6-4; 7-Werner Eschauer (Austria) bt Bartolome Salva-Vidal (Spain) 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 6-4; Lovro Zovko (Croatia) bt Thierry Ascione (France) 6-4, 6-0; Robin Haase (Netherlands) bt 2-Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) 6-3, 6-4; Kristof Vliegen (Belgium) bt 8-Marc Gicquel (France) 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

ROBREDO OUSTED