ACAPULCO, Mexico – American Sam Querrey narrowly avoided a major upset on Monday with a 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 victory over the 646th-ranked local Tigre Hank in the first round of the Mexican Open.
In other first-round results of the hard-court event at the Acapulco Princess complex, Jeremy Chardy of France advanced to the second round with a 7-5, 6-0 win over Australia's Matthew Ebden and Israel's Dudi Sela also advanced with a commanding 6-1, 6-4 victory over Alejandro Falla of Colombia.
Querrey, who came to Mexico after first round losses in Delray Beach and Memphis, lost the first set against wild-card Hank, but got back into the match with breaks in the first games of the next two sets.
He advanced to the next round, where he will play against the winner of the match between France's Stephane Robertson and Kevin Anderson, from South Africa.
Chardy, who took just 1 hour, 5 minutes to down Ebden, will next play the winner of Tuesday's match between Alexandr Dolgopolov and eighth-seeded Vasek Pospisil. Sela will meet either third-seeded John Isner or Ivo Karlovic of Croatia.
On the women's side of the combined ATP-WTA tournament, American Christina McHale defeated Kristina Mladenovic from France 6-4, 6-2, seventh seeded Stefanie Voegele lost 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 to Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm, while Aijla Tomljanovic won 6-1, 6-3 against Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova. – Sapa-AP