Jiri Vesely has made a winning return to the ATP World Tour in his first match since the US Open. The eighth seed saw off Pablo Andujar 6-2, 7-6(8) to advance to the second round of the Shenzhen Open.
The 23-year-old Czech lefty registered 13 aces, losing just six points on his first serve and breaking three times to secure his second FedEx ATP Head2Head victory over the Spaniard. It was a welcome return after he was forced to withdraw with a left arm injury ahead of his second-round clash with top seed Novak Djokovic at Flushing Meadows.
It had been an even longer spell between ATP World Tour matches for the 30-year-old Andujar, who was playing his first since undergoing right elbow surgery in March. He entered on a protected Emirates ATP Ranking having fallen to No.436 from a career-high of No.32 last July. Vesely next meets the winner of Spaniard Inigo Cervantes and Japanese wild card Akira Santillan.
American qualifier Ryan Harrison joined Vesely in the second round. The 24 year old defeated last year’s Shenzhen Open runner-up Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-5, 6-4. Harrison’s win sets up a meeting with fourth-seeded Bernard Tomic. The Australian has won the pair’s only prior FedEx Head2Head encounter four years ago at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati.
Sixth seed Benoit Paire needed two hours to get past Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-3 in a tight tussle. Next up for the Frenchman will be Janko Tipsarevic, who continued his comeback with a 7-6(3), 6-4 victory over Chinese wild card Ze Zhang.
Tunisian Malek Jaziri booked a second round clash with No. 2 seed David Goffin. Jaziri hit eight aces and broke three times on his way past Frenchman Stephane Robert 6-3, 7-6(5).
Top Seeds Upset
Fabio Fognini and Robert Lindstedt upset top seeds Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi 5-7, 7-6(2), 10-8 in the first round of the Shenzhen Open.
It was a double setback for Huey and Mirnyi, who started the week at sixth in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London, bidding to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals as a team for the first time.
Fognini and Lindstedt go on to face Pablo Andujar and Richard Gasquet, who battled back to beat Andres Molteni and Hans Podlipnik-Castillo 1-6, 6-1, 10-5.
Fourth seeds Chris Guccione and Andre Sa advanced to the quarter-finals with a 4-6, 6-3, 10-4 victory over Thomas Fabbiano and Bernard Tomic.