Beijing, China – Last year's runner-up Marin Cilic was a first-round loser, while rising American Sam Querrey posted a come-from-behind victory Monday at the $2.2 million China Open.
Unheralded Romanian wild card Marius Copil ousted the fourth-seeded Croatian Cilic 3-6, 7-6 (7-0), 6-4 on the hardcourts at Beijing's National Tennis Centre, which hosted the Olympic tennis event in 2008. Cilic lost despite uncorking 21 aces.
Cilic was a Beijing runner-up in 2009 and last year, when he gave way to Czech Tomas Berdych in the final.
Meanwhile, Querrey advanced by upsetting eighth-seeded Spanish left-hander Fernando Verdasco 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 and sixth-seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov avoided an upset by handling Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-0, 6-4 on Day 1.
Additional wins came for Argentine Carlos Berlocq, German Florian Mayer, Chinese wild card Ze Zhang, and South African Kevin Anderson, who overcame American qualifier Brian Baker 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.
On Tuesday in Beijing, top-seeded two-time champion Novak Djokovic will face German Michael Berrer; second-seeded 2010 runner-up David Ferrer of Spain will tangle with Taiwan's Yen-Hsun Lu; third-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will meet Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin; and fifth-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet will play Aussie Matthew Ebden. Gasquet is fresh off his first title in more than two years last week in Bangkok.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.