American Robby Ginepri stunned top-seeded Robin Soderling in the first round of the Chennai Open on Tuesday, dumping the big-serving Swede out of the tournament in straight sets.
Ginepri held off a second-set fightback by the French Open finalist to win 6-4, 7-5 and advance to the second round.
"It's tough to say what went wrong, probably everything,'' Soderling said.
Ginepri, the clear underdog going into the match, was delighted with his performance in which he hit 11 aces and saved seven of eight break points.
"I couldn't have asked for a better start to the season,'' Ginepri said. "It was the first match of the season so I wasn't sure how it would pan out... I had trained hard in the offseason and it's paying off.''
He added that arriving in India three days before Soderling had helped him "adapt better to the conditions.''.
Soderling, who made it to last year's French Open final, losing to Roger Federer, looked rusty and only shone in patches.
Meanwhile, Indian No.1 Somdev Devvarman caused a mini-upset by beating German Rainer Schuettler 7-5, 6-2.
But Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, seeded No.3, ousted Indian wild card Rohan Bopanna 6-1, 6-4.
In other matches Tuesday, Michael Russell of the United States beat Prakash Amritraj 6-3, 6-1 while Marcel Granollers of Spain overcame Britain's James Ward 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.
