Mason, OH – Twelfth-seeded Croat Marin Cilic and former top-five star Nikolay Davydenko were a pair of first-round winners Monday at the $2.825 million Western & Southern Open.
Cilic held off Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, while the 31-year-old Russian Davydenko dismantled 13th-seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-1, 6-1 in a brisk 52 minutes on the hardcourts at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
Former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, a two-time Cincinnati runner-up (2002, 2004), was a 6-4, 6-4 victor over Russian Mikhail Youzhny. The Australian Hewitt, a wild card in this tournament, moved to 5-1 all-time against Youzhny and 27-9 all-time in Cincinnati.
Meanwhile, American wild card Brian Baker ousted 15th-seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-3), while an all-American affair saw Jesse Levine knock out Donald Young 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) on Day 2.
Also moving into the second round were Serb Viktor Troicki, Taiwanese qualifier Yen-Hsun Lu, Spaniard Pablo Andujar, Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, Uzbek Denis Istomin, German Florian Mayer and Italian Andreas Seppi, who is rewarded with a match against last week's Toronto Masters titlist Novak Djokovic.
The three-time Western & Southern Open runner-up Djokovic lost to Olympic gold medalist and two-time Cincinnati champion Andy Murray in last year's marquee finale here.
This week's top seed is Wimbledon champion and Olympic silver medalist Roger Federer, who's a four-time Cincinnati winner.
This seventh of nine ATP Masters tournaments will pay its 2012 champ $535,600.
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