Wednesday, 1 August 2012:

Australian Marinko Matosevic has advanced to the second round of the Washington Open tennis tournament.

Matosevic scored a hard-fought win over American Jesse Levine 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 and will next face Germany's Tobias Kamke who beat seventh-seeded Benoit Paire of France 6-3 7-5.

Earlier on Tuesday, fellow Australian Matthew Ebden lost his first-round match to Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain 6-3 6-2.

Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine advanced to the second round with a 6-1 6-3 win over Italy's Flavio Cipolla, while fourth-seeded Tommy Haas defeated American qualifier Michael Russell 6-4 6-2.

Only a brief rain delay between sets slowed Haas - the last player to beat Roger Federer this year - in the Halle final in Germany - a pre-Wimbledon tune-up before the Swiss went on to win at the All England Club.

Despite a spotty first serve, the 34-year-old German never faced a break point and broke Russell's serve three times.

Dolgopolov needed less than an hour to down Cipolla, breaking the Italian four times without dropping his serve. The 23-year-old had lost his previous two matches against Cipolla, but relied on a blistering forehand to maintain control.

Xavier Malisse, a Washington semi-finalist in 2010, rallied for a 4-6 6-2 6-1 win over Paul-Henri Mathieu.

Swiss qualifier Marco Chiudinelli, a childhood friend of Federer, battled to beat Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 7-5 7-5 to reach a second round for the first time since February.

Mardy Fish, the top seed in the men's draw, dropped the first set before downing Bjorn Phau of Germany 4-6 6-1 6-2, while fellow German Benjamin Becker eliminated Steve Johnson of the US 6-4 6-2.

On the women's side, top seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia won six of nine break-point chances to beat Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia 6-4 6-3.

American Vania King, the No.4 seed, downed compatriot Jennifer Elie 6-3 6-4, and local player Sloane Stephens defeated Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal 6-2 0-6 6-1.

AAP