Vienna, Austria – Seeded players Benoit Paire and Xavier Malisse were among Tuesday's first-round losers at the Erste Bank Open.
Italian Paolo Lorenzi drove out the seventh-seeded Frenchman Paire 6-4, 6-4, while Slovenian qualifier Grega Zemlja doused an eighth-seeded Malisse, of Belgium, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (8-6) on the indoor hardcourts at Wiener Stadthalle.
Meanwhile, Canadian-born American Jesse Levine handled Poland's Lukasz Kubot 6-3, 6-4 and Canadian qualifier Vasek Pospisil overcame Austrian wild card Andreas Haider-Maurer 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-1. Haider-Maurer was a surprise finalist here two years ago.
Additional Day-2 wins came for Aussie Matthew Ebden, Slovenian Aljaz Bedene and German qualifier Daniel Brands.
On Wednesday, top-seeded Juan Martin del Potro will face Brands and fourth- seeded Austrian favorite and two-time champion Jurgen Melzer will take on Luxembourg's Gilles Muller. The former U.S. Open champion del Potro was last year's Vienna runner-up to Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who is not defending his title this week.
The newest Vienna titlist will pocket $113,795.
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