Cilic, Tomic advance in Sydney
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sydney, Australia (SportsNetwork.com) - Defending champion Bernard Tomic was among Tuesday's first-round winners at the Sydney International, a final hardcourt Australian Open tune-up.
Tomic, who was the youngest title winner on the ATP World Tour last year, claimed a 6-3, 6-0 win over eighth-seeded Marcel Granollers at NSW Tennis Centre.
Seventh-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic rallied past German qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Meanwhile, Frenchman Nicolas Mahut beat American qualifier Ryan Harrison by a 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 margin to set up a second-round meeting with top seed Juan Martin del Potro, and Slovenian qualifier Blaz Kavcic took down Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6-4, 6-3. Nieminen won this tournament as a qualifier two years ago and was the runner-up in 2009.
Lucky loser Albert Ramos discarded American Sam Querrey by a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 score. Ramos stepped in to replace fifth-seeded Canadian Vasek Pospisil, who withdrew because of lower back problems.
Czech Radek Stepanek outlasted Aussie wild card Samuel Groth 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky defeated Argentine Carlos Berlocq 6-3, 6-4, and Australian Marinko Matosevic beat German Florian Mayer 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Alexandr Dolgopolov beat Edouard Roger-Vasselin after the Frenchman retired following the first set due to fatigue. Roger-Vasselin was last week's runner- up in Chennai.