MASON, Ohio (AP) Taylor Dent's first match in Cincinnati in five years packed a lot of punch.
The 83rd-ranked American, who reached the Cincinnati Masters main draw as a qualifier, rode a decisive serve advantage to a surprisingly easy 6-3, 6-2 first-round win over No. 24 Feliciano Lopez on Monday.
Dent unleashed 12 aces and had just one double-fault, while his Spanish opponent had just four aces and seven double faults, but Dent believed his return game was more important. He won 42 percent of his return points to 25 percent by Lopez.
We're both big servers,'' said Dent, who earned a second-round matchup with top-seeded Rafael Nadal.The bottom line is it comes down to who's gonna put more good returns in play. Today, I wasn't missing many returns, and I was getting a ton of free points on my serve. I think, at times, he may have felt a little bit of pressure. He threw in some double faults and missed some first balls, so it's tough when you're a big server and your opponent's putting a very, very high percentage of solid returns in play.''
Dent was one of a series of surprise winners on the first full day of the $2.4 million Western & Southern Financial Group Masters. Fourteenth-seeded Nicolas Almagro became the second seeded player to be eliminated when he fell to 26th-ranked Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 6-3.
Eleventh-seeded Marin Cilic fell to Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets Sunday night.
Wawrinka has won three of his four career matches against Almagro.
Also advancing with upsets were No. 102 Paul-Henri Mathieu, who rallied to edge 54th-ranked Victor Hanescu 6-7 (6), 7-6 (2), 6-3, and 47th-ranked Viktor Troicki, who knocked off No. 28 Radek Stepanek 7-5, 6-1. Mathieu is scheduled to meet seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych in the second round on Tuesday.
No. 51 Michael Berrer edged 39th-ranked Tommy Robredo in a taut three-set match, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (8), and 50th-ranked Thiemo De Bakker also needed three sets to oust No. 21 Juan Monaco 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3.
Tenth-seeded David Ferrer was pushed to three sets before prevailing over 43rd-ranked Alexandr Dolgopolov 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, while 13th-seeded Jurgen Melzer and 21st-ranked Sam Querry both avoided the rash of upsets with 6-1, 6-4 wins, Melzer over No. 62 Santiago Giraldo and Querry over No. 48 Philipp Petzschner. Querry needed only 50 minutes to win.
I felt great, especially on my serve,'' he said.He gave me a few errors in the first set there, a couple of wind forehands. I'll take it.''