No. 8 seed Denis Kudla and Vasek Pospisil, both beneficiaries of a depleted field on the grass courts in Newport, eased into the second round with Monday victories.
Kudla, the highest ranked player in action on the opening day, began main draw play with an emphatic 6-3, 6-4 win over Ruben Bemelmans in just over an hour. The American lost just two points on his serve in the first set and faced no deuce service games until he first served for the match, when he was broken.
Kudla had broken his Belgian opponent in the opening game of the second set, then added a ultimately important insurance break. The 25-year-old then had little trouble closing out the match at second asking, hitting an ace at 40-15 that Bemelmans could not reach.
Serving also played a critical role in Kudla’s first set victory. He secured the lone break when Bemelmans double faulted on break point at 2-3, then used a powerful serve to set up a classy forehand slice on set point.
Pospisil, meanwhile, cruised past hapless American Donald Young 7-6, 6-2. The two were evenly matched in the opening set, which had break points in just one game, before Young collapsed in the tiebreak. Thanks to a double fault and more wild play, Pospisil turned a 3-2 deficit into a 6-3 lead, then coolly fired an ace to secure the first mark on the ledger.
The world No. 98 immediately capitalized on more loose play, coming back from 40-0 down in the opening game of the second set to go a break up when Young double faulted. Pospisil, who earned his first tour win since his last tournament stateside — in Miami, nearly four months ago — added two more breaks throughout the set.
In contrast, he saved all five break points he faced, helping him secure a second-round meeting with No. 2 seed Mischa Zverev.
A pair of players outside the top 100, Jordan Thompson and Tim Smyczek, secured rare tour-level wins against struggling opponents. Also Monday, onetime top 20 player Bernard Tomic advanced to the main draw with a straight sets win over Alessandro Bega in the final qualifying round. Tomic reached the semifinals as a qualifier in Hertogenbosch last month.
