Montevideo: Top seed Pablo Cuevas progressed to the second round, with an easy 6-3, 6-3 win over wildcard Santiago Maresca. He was joined by Facundo Arguello, who made hard work of beating Gonzalo Lama of Chile in three sets 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. Nicolas Kicker and Michael Linzer also won on Monday.
On Tuesday, Andrej Martin finished strongly to beat Andre Ghem 6-3, 2-6, 6-1. Second seed Diego Schwartzmann endured the challenge of qualifier Orlando Luz, winning 4-6, 7-6, 6-1, and Gastao Elias won a real battle with Guido Andreozzi 6-7, 6-4, 6-4.
Kyle Edmund faces qualifier Andrea Collarini, as he continues Davis Cup preparations, but the match to really be aware of is Maximo Gonzalez vs Guido Pella.
Brescia: It was not a good day for wildcards, as three tumbled out of the draw. Gianluca Mager did take Dustin Brown the distance, but the German eighth seed won 6-3 in third set. Lorenzo Sonego and Gregoire Barrere both succumbed in straight sets. Mikhail Youzhny was forced to retire with injury just six game into his match with Andrea Arnaboldi. Salvatore Caruso and Luca Vanni ensured a healthy home contingent did progress from round one.
On Tuesday, three lucky losers took their places, as a flurry of late withdrawals hit the tournament. Francesco Borgo lost 7-5, 6-4 to top seed Sergiy Stakhovsky, but Dimitar Kuzmanov progressed. Roberto Marcora scored the shock of the round, defeating one of the all-time greats of the Challenger circuit in Dudi Sela 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. German seeds Benjamin Becker and Michael Berrer were both pushed to the limit, but both progressed in three tight sets. The unseeded Lukas Lacko defeated the severely out of form Marsel Ilhan 6-1, 6-4. A surprise on the ranking maybe, but not the form book.
Yokohama: It’s very much as you were in Japan, with few shocks littering the first round action. Konstantin Kravchuk, Go Soeda, Yuichi Sugita, Tatsuma Ito, and Matthew Ebden all progressed. Only eighth seed Yoshihito Nishioka was troubled, in the middle of a third set battle when his qualifier opponent, American Peter Kobelt, retired with injury. Briton Brydan Klein and young Korean talent Duckhee Lee aslo won.
Champaign: Ryan Harrison has work to do to ensure he gets direct qualification to the Australian Open, and the young American made a good start in defeating Marek Michalicka 6-3 6-3. Taylor Fritz got back to winning ways, defeating Giovanni Lapentti 6-3, 6-2. Top seed Malek Jaziri finally won a match defeating Charlottesville champion Noah Rubin 6-4, 6-2. Daniel Nguyen was a winner, and so were Eric Quigley and Adrien Bossel, who both upset higher ranked opponents. Tuesday saw Mitchell Kreuger shock Jared Donaldson 6-4, 6-4, and second seed Austin Krajicek progressed to the second round with a win over qualifier Raymond Sarmiento by the same score.
Dan Evans vs Bjorn Fratangelo looks to be an intriguing match tonight, with Evans in top form, and Alejandro Falla vs Frances Tiafoe will be close too.
