Bucharest, Romania – Fifth-seeded former champion Florian Mayer advanced, while seventh seed Horacio Zeballos was sent packing in the first round at the $535,000 Nastase Tiriac Trophy tennis event.
The 2011 titlist Mayer, of Germany, topped Italian qualifier Flavio Cipolla 6-0, 7-6 (7-1), while Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez doused the Argentine Zeballos 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 on the red clay at BNR Arenas. Zeballos shocked Rafael Nadal in a clay-court final in Chile back in February.
Meanwhile, French wild card Gael Monfils whipped Italian lucky loser Filippo Volandri 6-4, 6-2 and Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen overcame Russian Evgeny Donskoy 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) on Day 2. The 2006 runner-up Volandri took the place of sixth-seeded fellow Italian Fabio Fognini in the draw. Fognini, who was last year's Bucharest runner-up to Gilles Simon, pulled out here, citing fatigue.
Also on Tuesday, Romanian Victor Hanescu, the 2007 Bucharest runner-up, handled German qualifier Matthias Bachinger 6-4, 6-3; Colombian Santiago Giraldo blitzed Belgian Xavier Malisse 6-1, 6-2; Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky drilled Czech qualifier Jaroslav Pospisil 6-2, 6-2; German Tobias Kamke whipped Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-1, 6-3; and Czech Lukas Rosol topped Luxembourg's Gilles Muller 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.
In the second round on Wednesday, a second-seeded and defending champion Simon will meet the left-handed Nieminen. The three-time Bucharest champion Simon also captured this tournament back-to-back in 2007 and 2008.
This week's top seed is Serbian star Janko Tipsarevic, who will open his stay against the aforementioned Giraldo.
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