Sam Querrey earned a confidence boosting 7-6(6), 7-6(8) victory over No. 11 seed Lucas Pouille on Monday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
Querrey, through to the second round for only the third time (also 2011-12), struck 14 aces and lost just nine of his first service points. The American saved two set points at 4/6 in the first set tie-break, then saw a 4-1 lead evaporate in the second set. Pouille, who qualified last year and reached the semi-finals (l. to Murray), could not convert set points at 6/5, 7/6 and 8/7 in the second set tie-break.
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Querrey, who defeated Rafael Nadal in February’s Abierto Mexicano Telcel final for his ninth ATP World Tour trophy, will now challenge qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff. The German broke a two-match losing streak in his third meeting against Bernard Tomic 6-7(8), 6-1, 6-4 in just over two hours. Struff could not convert three set point opportunities at 6/4 and 8/7 in the first-set tie-break.
Later in the day, ninth seed David Goffin fought back from a set and 1-3 deficit to work his way past lucky loser Thomaz Bellucci 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and 31 minutes. He broke Bellucci in the ninth game of the decider en route to his 28th match win of the year, which includes two runner-up finishes in Sofia (l. to Dimitrov) and Rotterdam (l. to Tsonga).
Spanish qualifier Nicolas Almagro also moved into the second round, knocking out home favourite Andreas Seppi, who received a wild card into the main draw, 7-6(6), 6-3.