Ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga cruised into the second round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Monday with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Florian Mayer.
The Frenchman made a successful return from the knee injury that saw him retire against Novak Djokovic in the US Open quarter-finals. Tsonga notched his 29th win of the season as he dismissed Mayer in 71 minutes, saving the five break points he faced.
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The 31-year-old Tsonga was runner-up at this ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament last year (l. to Djokovic) and also reached the semi-finals in 2013 (l. to Djokovic).
There was more French success on Day Two as Benoit Paire defeated Joao Sousa 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 in one hour and 52 minutes.
Second seed Andy Murray will begin his Shanghai bid against Steve Johnson after the American defeated Martin Klizan 6-4, 6-3. Murray is coming off his 40th tour-level title in Beijing and has a 2-0 FedEx ATP Head2Head lead over Johnson, who clinched his 29th win of a career-best season.
Vasek Pospisil recorded just his ninth win in what has been a frustrating season, defeating Ivo Karlovic 7-6(5), 6-4 in 80 minutes. The Canadian, who has slipped to No. 131 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, qualified into the main draw in Shanghai and looks to rediscover his top form. He will look to win back-to-back tour-level matches for the first time in 2016 when he faces Grigor Dimitrov or Richard Gasquet in the second round.
In the final match of the day, Spaniard Nicolas Almagro came back to defeat Russian qualifier Mikhail Youzhny 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. Almagro struck nine aces and broke Youzhny five times in the first-round victory.