Chennai, India – Seeds Robin Haase and Go Soeda were among Monday's first-round winners at the season-opening Chennai Open.
The sixth-seeded Dutch Haase handled Indian wild card Yuki Bhambri 7-5, 6-3, while the eighth-seeded Japanese Soeda subdued Russian Evgeny Donskoy 6-1, 6-2 at SDAT Tennis Stadium.
Also on Day 1, France's Edouard Roger-Vasselin beat Russian Andrey Kuznetsov 6-3, 6-4 and Slovenian Aljaz Bedene blitzed Portuguese Joao Sousa 6-3, 6-2. Roger-Vasselin will face second seed Janko Tipsarevic in the round of 16. Tipsarevic was last year's Chennai runner-up to Canadian Milos Raonic.
This event serves as a hardcourt tune-up for the Australian Open, which will begin in two weeks. The top seed this week is Czech Tomas Berdych.
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