SYDNEY, Australia -- Last year's runner-up Richard Gasquet was among the opening-round winners on a rainy Tuesday at the $450,000 Sydney International, a final Australian Open tune-up.
The fifth-seeded Gasquet took care of Aussie wild card Matthew Ebden 6-4, 6-3 on the hardcourts at Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre.
Gasquet, who lost to Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in last year's Sydney finale, will meet Italian Andreas Seppi here on Wednesday. Seppi drilled Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin 6-1, 6-0 on Day 2.
Two other seeds saw action on Tuesday, as No. 7 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain got past qualifier and Aussie favorite Chris Guccione 7-6 (7-5), 7-5, while No. 8 Yen-Hsun Lu of Taipei was trailing former top-10 Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-0, 3-2 when rain halted play.
Additional results saw Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela overcome Czech Radek Stepanek 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 and Italian Potito Starace come back to best Frenchman Julien Benneteau 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 6-4. The veteran Chela was a Sydney runner-up back in 2002.
Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov was tied with Aussie Bernard Tomic 6-7 (3-7), 6-1 when rain pushed the completion of their match into Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, former top-five star and former U.S. Open champ Juan Martin del Potro, a wild card this week, will continue his return from wrist surgery when he meets German Florian Mayer in a second-rounder.
Del Potro participated in only three tournaments last year because of a right wrist injury suffered at the Aussie Open.
