Andy Roddick beat Richard Berankis 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the opening round at the Memphis ATP Tour event on Tuesday night.
The two-time winner in Memphis will face Janko Tipsarevic in the second round.
Roddick, playing for the first time since the Australian Open, had plenty of unforced errors, but produced 23 aces with his strong serve.
''It was one of those days where I felt if I made a first serve the point was done, didn't have to do much work after that,'' Roddick said. ''That gave me a chance. And I played a little bit more aggressive in the third set.''
Defending champion Sam Querrey, the tournament's No. 5 seed, opened with a 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory over Denis Istomin, snapping a three-match winless streak to open the season. Querrey had lost first-round matches in Sydney, Melbourne and San Jose to start the year and had dropped six straight since to mid-October.
Earlier, Mardy Fish beat Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-1, 7-5 in the first round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships. Fish skipped last week's ATP tournament in San Jose, Calif., because a thyroid condition was bothering him.
''I felt a lot better today than I did Friday,'' Fish said. ''So that's a good sign. Obviously the goal is to try to get to 100 percent. To be honest, I've felt better each day.''
Fish is coming off a year in which he attained a career-high world ranking of 16, won two tournaments and reached the finals of three others.
Among those joining Fish in the Memphis second round were James Blake, who beat Ricardo Mello of Brazil, 6-4, 6-3; and 2009 finalist Radek Stepanek, who beat Benjamin Becker, 6-4, 6-2.
Ivan Dodig, who won his first ATP World Tour event two weeks ago in Croatia, beat Rainer Schuettler 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
In second-round matches on the women's side, the Cellular South Cup, No. 7 seed Renata Voracova was eliminated by Ksenia Pervak, 6-1, 6-1.
Magdalena Rybarikova beat Anne Keothavong, a Memphis semifinalist the previous two years.
The only seeded players remaining in the field are No. 3 Melanie Oudin and No. 6 Rebecca Marino.
