Gstaad, Switzerland – Fifth seed Feliciano Lopez was a hard-fought first-round winner Tuesday at the $435,000 Swiss Open Gstaad.
The lefthanded Lopez fired 14 aces before overcoming Romanian Adrian Ungur 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) on the clay courts at Credit Agricole Swiss Arena. The Spanish Lopez was the Gstaad runner-up in 2006.
A Day-2 upset came when promising Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov doused sixth- seeded Frenchman Julien Benneteau, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
In other opening-round play, German qualifier Dustin Brown came back to beat Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8); Poland's Lukasz Kubot overcame Croat Ivan Dodig 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Czech Jan Hajek got past Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin 4-1, retired; Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci blitzed Slovenian Blaz Kavcic 6-1, 6-1; and Latvian Ernests Gulbis outlasted Italian Filippo Volandri 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-3. Bellucci titled here three years ago.
The top seeds here are last week's Stuttgart titlist Janko Tipsarevic and last week's Umag runner-up Marcel Granollers, who is the reigning Gstaad champ. Granollers beat Fernando Verdasco in last year's all-Spanish finale here.
This week's champion will collect $79,000.
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