Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain rallied to beat Russian wild card Evgeny Donskoy 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 Monday in the first round of the St. Petersburg Open.
The seventh-seeded Spaniard struggled with his serve early, dropping the first set and trailing 3-1 in the second, but his form picked up and he broke the 121st-ranked Donskoy twice to even the match at one set apiece.
Garcia Lopez broke decisively in the fourth game of the third set and finished the match by serving out to love.
In other first-round action, Italy's Flavio Cipolla advanced with a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6) win over qualifier Andrei Vasilevski of Belarus, and Rajeev Ram of the United States beat Matthias Bachinger of Germany 6-4, 6-4.
Ram broke Bachinger early in the first set but fell 4-1 down in the second before winning five consecutive games.
Mikhail Youzhny, the 2004 champion and a two-time runner-up, is the top-seeded player in the 18th edition of the tournament.
