Cilic, Dimitrov win Beijing openers

Published February 05, 2015

Beijing, China (SportsNetwork.com) - U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic and fifth seed Grigor Dimitrov were a pair of first-round winners Monday at the $2.5 million China Open tennis event.

The fourth-seeded Croatian star Cilic, a Beijing runner-up in 2009 and 2011, eased past Chinese wild card Yan Bai 6-3, 6-4, while the Bulgarian Dimitrov held off Spanish left-hander and former top-10 star Fernando Verdasco 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 on the hardcourts at Beijing Olympic Green Tennis Center.

Also on Day 1, Canadian Vasek Pospisil topped Czech Lukas Rosol 6-4, 6-3, Portuguese Joao Sousa overcame Russian qualifier Teymuraz Gabashvili 1-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 and Serbian wild card Viktor Troicki doused Russia's Mikhail Youzhny, the 2004 Beijing runner-up, 6-3, 6-4.

Several stars will take to the courts on Tuesday, including world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, former top-ranked stalwart Rafael Nadal and last week's Shenzhen, China, champ Andy Murray. The Wimbledon champion Djokovic will take on Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, while the second seed and French Open titlist Nadal will face Frenchman Richard Gasquet and a sixth-seeded Murray, fresh off his first title in almost 15 months, will meet 6-foot-8 Pole Jerzy Janowicz.

Djokovic is 19-0 in Beijing, where he's a four-time champion. He beat the 2005 winner Nadal in last year's final for a second straight title here.

Nadal will play his first tennis losing in the fourth round at Wimbledon, as the Spanish great has been sidelined with a left wrist injury for three months.

"I am much better," Nadal said. "The thing is the injury, the evolution of the injury, was a bit slow and took a little bit of time. But that's it. I just feel the wrist a little bit when I am starting, when I start to play every day, but then it disappears. I'm in good conditions to compete again."

Nadal actually returned to action playing doubles on Monday, as he and fellow Spaniard Pablo Andujar lost to Czech Tomas Berdych and American John Isner 7-5, 4-6, 10-4 in 84 minutes.

Nadal captured an Olympic gold medal in singles in Beijing in 2008.

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