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| Wesley Moodie beat Jean-Rene Lisnard 6-3, 6-3 in the opening round at the RCA Championships. |
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ Wesley Moodie beat Jean-Rene Lisnard 6-3, 6-3 Monday to advance to the second round of the RCA Championships.
Moodie battled the Frenchman for 1 hour, 22 minutes and refused to call the win a rout.
"It was kind of a strange match,'' said Moodie, who won the first two games of the first set before Lisnard broke him twice for a 3-2 lead.
Lisnard won the first three games of the second set before Moodie rallied again.
"It was a very up and down match,'' Moodie said. "I guess I played solidly at the right times.''
The unseeded Moodie converted 74 percent of his first serves (34 of 46), while the unseeded Lisnard was at 48 percent (20 of 42).
"I think it's a matter of just getting used to hard courts again,'' Moodie said. "The ball is very lively.''
The South African teamed with Australia's Stephen Huss win the doubles title at Wimbledon.
Moodie, No. 116 in the ATP rankings, will face Britain's Greg Rusedski, who is seeded seventh.
Rusedski won the 2002 tournament by beating Spain's Felix Mantilla in the final.
In another match, unseeded Robby Ginepri needed just 57 minutes to dispatch Sweden's Michael Ryderstedt, 6-1, 6-4.
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| A frustrated James Blake during his match against Gregory Carraz at the RCA Championships.© Matthew Stockman/Getty Images |
"Last year and this year have been kind of a roller coaster,'' said Ginepri, who reached the round of 16 last year before falling 7-6 (5), 6-4 to eventual champion Andy Roddick. ``I don't think anybody expects me to do that well. Hopefully, I can get back there, and maybe a little higher, this year.''
Frenchman Gregory Carraz, a semifinalist last year, advanced with a 7-5, 6-7 (3), 7-5 marathon victory over American James Blake. The match, which itself lasted 2:08, also was delayed 58 minutes by rain shortly after it began.
Blake actually won 112 points to 108 for Carraz, but Carraz had the only service breaks in the match _ in the 11th game of the first set and in the 12th game of the third set.
"I know I had a lot of unforced errors, but that's pretty much my game,'' Carraz said. ``The big thing for me is to go for my shots.''
In other first-round matches, Russia's Dmitry Tursunov swept qualifier Yen-Hsun Lu 6-3, 6-4; and France's Antony DuPuis beat Germany's Alexander Popp 7-5, 6-1.