ST. PETERSBURG, Russia: Lukas Lacko of Slovakia and Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan both lost in the first round of the St. Petersburg Open yesterday.
The fifth-seeded Lacko was beaten by Grega Zemlja of Slovenia 6-3, 6-2, while the sixth-seeded Lu lost to Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain 6-4, 6-2.
Zemlja won five consecutive games in the first set and never faced a break in the second.
“It’s my third time, I think, that I was accepted in the main draw directly,” said Zemlja, ranked 69th. “It wasn’t easy. Maybe it looked easy, but I was fighting throughout the match. I was trying to win very point, every game.” Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain advanced to the second round, eliminating Florent Serra of France 7-6 (5), 6-2.
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain rallied to beat Russian wild card Evgeny Donskoy 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 Monday night in a first round match.
The seventh-seeded Spaniard struggled with his serve early, dropping the first set and trailing 3-1 in the second, but his form picked up and he broke the 121st-ranked Donskoy twice to even the match at one set apiece.
Garcia Lopez broke decisively in the fourth game of the third set and finished the match by serving out to love.
In other first-round action, Italy’s Flavio Cipolla advanced with 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6) win over qualifier Andrei Vasilevski of Belarus.
Seeds beaten at St. Petersburg Open tourney
