ZAGREB, Croatia (AP)—Third-seeded Jurgen Melzer defeated Daniel Brands of Germany 6-4, 6-3 in 94 minutes on Monday to advance to the second round of the Zagreb Indoors ATP tournament.
The lefthanded Austrian served for the first set at 5-3, but was broken by Brands, currently ranked 93rd in the ATP singles rankings. In the next game Melzer broke again to secure the first set.
Brands was hampered by squandered opportunities, winning just one of 8 break points. He lost his serve again in the eighth game and went on to lose the set 6-3.
Melzer will next face Belgian Olivier Rochus, who ousted Igor Kunitsyn of Russia, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.
Fourth-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia—last year’s semifinalist—scored a straight sets win over Rainer Schuettler of Germany, 6-3, 6-2 in only 62 minutes and without dropping his serve.
Troicki wil next play Mikhail Kukushkin from Kazakhstan, who defeated German Mischa Zverev, 6-4, 6-3, for a place in the quarterfinals.
Croatian wild card Ivan Dodig, ranked 153rd, saved four set points in the opening set against eighth-seeded Evgeny Korolev. The Russian player led 6-4, 8-7 and 9-8 in the tie breaker but Dodig prevailed to win 7-6 (9), 6-4.
Dodig next faces Illya Marchenko of Ukraine, who ousted Italian Simone Bolelli, 6-2, 6-4.
Top-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia will play his first-round match on Wednesday against Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic.