Leander Paes-Stanislas Wawrinka make second round of Cincinnati Open

Cincinnati (USA): Leander Paes and Stanislas Wawrinka overcame a sluggish start to beat Kevin Anderson and Jeremy Chardy in the opening round of the Western and Southern Open, the ATP Masters event, here.

The unseeded Indo-Swiss pair dispatched the South African-French combo 1-6 6-1 10-6 to make it to the second round of the $4,457,065 hard court tournament.

Paes and singles World No.5 Wawrinka are contesting their second tournament together, having reached the quarterfinals at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Paris last October. They now face eighth seeds Canada’s Vasek Pospisil and local boy Jack Sock, whom they beat 6-1 6-4 in Paris.

Mardy Fish surprised even himself. Fish opened the next-to-last tournament of his career with a convincing 6-2, 6-2 victory over 20th-ranked Viktor Troicki in the first round of the men’s singles.

“I was a little surprised at my level,” Fish said. “I hadn’t practiced a ton or particularly well for a little while. I was struggling with my serve. A friend of mine came in a couple days and helped, but it was still sort of a struggle even yesterday to sort of find my serve and stuff,” he added.

“I was obviously real happy with the level,” Fish further added. Fish, a wild card who plans to retire after the U.S. Open, next faces second-ranked Andy Murray. It was Fish’s first singles victory on tour since August 18, 2013, against Evgeny Donskoy at Winston-Salem.

Two seeded players lost in the first round. Jerzy Janowicz surprised 14th-seeded Gael Monfils 6-4, 7-5, and Ivo Karlovic improved to 3-1 in his career against 10th-seeded Gilles Simon with a 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3 win.

The loss for Monfils came a week after the number 16 was defeated in the Montreal second round by Gilles Muller in three sets after Monfils put out Fabio Fognini with the loss of just four games in the first round in Canada.

The main complaint against Monfils was a rapid-fire serving speed which barely allowed ballboys to get into position between the end of one point and the start of the next. During one rally, Monfils turned his back on Janowicz before losing the exchange. Monfils has made his name in tennis with a playful nature which can produce stunning shot-making in one moment and cringing errors in another.

Former US women’s singles star Tracy Austin, who was commentating for the Tennis Channel, accused Monfils of not trying his best. “To not give 100 percent and be so blatant about it, I think it’s disrespectful,” she said.

In other men’s action David Goffin rallied past qualifier Yen-Hsun Lu 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. Joao Sousa defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-2, and Bernard Tomic beat Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-4, 6-3. Thomaz Bellucci topped Jiri Vesely 7-6 (5), 6-2, and Gilles Muller eliminated Benoit Paire 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6).