Australians Alex de Minaur and James Duckworth have won their opening matches at the ATP event in Los Cabos, Mexico.
A day after compatriot Rinky Hijikata was beaten in straight sets by John Isner, fifth seed de Minaur defeated Tunisia’s Skander Mansouri, the world No.296, 6-4 6-4 in an hour and 45 minutes.
After relinquishing his early break of serve in the seventh game, the 24-year-old Aussie broke again in the 10th to take the opening set.
World No.19 de Minaur lost his serve twice in the second to trail 4-3, but responded with two more breaks of his own to seal his progress to the round of 16 where he will face Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante.
Duckworth, currently ranked 123 in the world, followed that up on Tuesday night with a 6-3 6-0 demolition of Finland’s Otto Virtanen and next takes on seventh seed Dominik Koepfer.
The German was a 6-4 6-3 winner against Chile’s Tomas Barrios…