British No.2 Aljaz Bedene was forced to retire during his first round match with American Sam Querrey at the ASB Classic in Auckland, hampering his final preparations for the Australian Open, which gets underway in the early hours of Monday morning.

Bedene Retires As Kohlschreiber Sets Up Tsonga Clash

Having reached the semi-finals of the Chennai Open on Saturday, a gruelling three set, near three hour loss to Borna Coric, plus the long trek to New Zealand, it clearly had a effect on Bedene in his match with Querrey, with the opening two sets both decided by tiebreaks, with the Brit having five match points in the second, but not taking any of them. In the third game of the decider, Bedene called it quits through injury, meaning Querrey goes on to face fellow American John Isner next.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's first opponent in a competitive match in 2016 will be Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber, who came past fellow countryman Benjamin Becker in the first round. Benoit Paire, Fabio Fognini and Roberto Bautista-Agut (who defeated defending champion Jiri Vesely), the 5th, 6th and 8th seeds respectively, all progressed to the the last-16, whilst Lukas Rosol, still infamous for handing Rafa Nadal that defeat at Wimbledon 2012, was also victorious.

Defending Auckland champ Jiri Vesely was beaten in his first match of his defence (Via ATP)
Defending Auckland champ Jiri Vesely was beaten in his first match of his defence (Via ATP)

Seventh Seed Mayer And Croatian Coric Both Lose in Sydney

Leonardo Mayer, who pushed Novak Djokovic all the way before eventually losing in their Doha quarter-final last week, wasn't so spectacular in Sydney overnight, as the Argentine was beaten in straight sets in his first round meeting with Teymuraz Gabashvili. Also on the losing side of things was Coric, whose run to the Chennai final just over 48 hours earlier had clearly fatigued the youngster, as Gilles Muller comfortably dispatched his opponent, setting up an encounter with second seed Dominic Thiem next.

Jeremy Chardy and Alexandr Dolgopolov were winners however as the 6th and 8th seeds did make it through as expected. Home wildcard James Duckworth (who will play Chardy for a place in the quarter-finals) and French qualifier Nicolas Mahut also picked up first round wins. Not such a good day for another Aussie, the big serving Sam Groth, who lost in two tiebreaks to Federico Delbonis.


Results


ATP Auckland Day 2:


Benoit Paire (5) bt Michael Venus 6-4, 7-6
Fabio Fognini (6) bt Joao Sousa 6-4, 2-6, 7-6
Roberto Bautista-Agut (8) bt Jiri Vesely 6-3, 7-5
Sam Querrey bt Aljaz Bedene 6-7, 7-6, 2-1r
Philipp Kohlschreiber bt Benjamin Becker 7-6, 6-3
Lukas Rosol bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6, 6-4


ATP Sydney Day 2:


Jeremy Chardy (6) bt Mikhail Kukushkin 6-2, 6-3
Teymuraz Gabashvili bt Leonardo Mayer (7) 6-4, 6-3
Alexandr Dolgopolov (8) bt Thomaz Bellucci 6-1, 6-4
Gilles Muller bt Borna Coric 6-1, 6-4
James Duckworth bt Inigo Cervantes 6-3, 6-2
Nicolas Mahut bt Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 7-5
Federico Delbonis bt Sam Groth 7-6, 7-6

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