KUALA LUMPUR: Adrian Mannarino became the first player to reach the men’s singles second round of the Malaysian Open tennis championships at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Monday.
The 25-year-old Frenchman defeated Daniel Brands of Germany 6-3, 6-4 in 78 minutes to set up a second round clash with third seed Nicolas Almagro of Spain.
The world No. 62 now fancies his chances of overcoming Almagro, the world No. 17, to reach the last eight.
Mannarino has performed well on the big stage this year. He reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time at Wimbledon where he lost to Lukasz Kubot of Poland. At the US Open, he knocked out American Sam Querrey before losing to Roger Federer of Switzerland in the third round.
“Almagro is a powerful player and he is playing well this year. He beat me the last time we met. I need to be at my best if I am to have a chance to beat him,” said Mannarino, who was ranked a lowly 188th at the end of last year.
Almagro, who only arrived on Sunday evening, enjoyed a bye into the second round by virtue of being one of the top four seeds. The Spaniard knows Mannarino is a tricky prospect and is not thinking beyond the second round.
“I did not play well in my last tournament (he lost in the second round of the US Open). I need to focus on my first match. I practised a litte bit here, not too much because I am still jet-lagged and tired,” said Almagro, who made the quarter-finals when he last played here in 2011.
Earlier in the final round of qualifying, Somdev Devvarman of India, Mischa Zverev of Germany, Rajeev Ram of the United States and Matteo Viola of Italy all earned spots in the main draw.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s Mohd Assri Merzuki and Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta failed to clear their men’s doubles first round. Assri and Busta were beaten 4-6, 6-7 (6-8) by the Uruguay-Argentina combination of Pablo Cuevas and Horacio Zeballos.
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