Fifth-seeded Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic needed a late rally to beat 100th-ranked Diego Sebastian Schwartzman 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (2) in the first round of the Croatia Open on Tuesday.
Schwartzman was serving at 4-3 in the third set and the Argentine even had game point to increase his lead. However, Rosol broke back to level and then comfortably won the tiebreaker.
Spaniard Albert Montanes, who has twice reached the quarter-finals in Umag, cruised to a 6-4, 6-4 victory over teenager Alexander Zverev. The 17-year-old German rose to a career-high 161 on Monday after the reaching semi-finals in Hamburg last week.
Another Argentine, eighth-seeded Carlos Berlocq beat Slovakia's Andrej Martin 7-6 (4), 6-3.
Though there were no service breaks in the opening set, Berlocq took a commanding 4-1 lead in the second set on his way to a place in the second round.
Sixth-seeded Andreas Seppi, a three-time semi-finalist at Umag, also advanced after beating fellow Italian Marco Cecchinato 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-1.
In the late matches, Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain defeated Frenchman Benoit Paire 7-5, 6-3, while another Spaniard, Pere Riba, rallied to beat Jiry Vesely of the Czech Republic 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-3.
Dutchman Igor Sijsling also booked a place in the second round, beating Germany's Julian Reister 7-6 (2), 6-7 (3), 6-2 to line up a match against 2012 champion Marin Cilic on Wednesday.
In other matches, Argentine qualifier Horacio Zeballos beat Croatian wild card entrant Ante Pavic 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-1, while Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia beat Serbia's Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 6-3. Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas came from a set down to defeat Mate Delic of Croatia 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
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