ATP round-up UPDATED

Brisbane International

At the Brisbane International things are still in the very early stages. Marin Cilic who made headlines earlier this year for a doping violation due to traces of nikethamide in an urine test which he insisted was due to a member of his team buying a glucose tablet from the pharmacy, got off to a wining start. The former top 20 player battled in an hard three setter encounter against Denis Isotomin, eventually winning 67 76 64. The other winners so far include Sam Querrey, James Duckworth and Marinko Matosevic. The full results are below:-

		D. Tursunov	5	4		1st Round
		S. Querrey	7	6		Dec 30, Completed
		D. Istomin	77	65	4	1st Round
		M. Cilic	63	77	6	Dec 30, Completed
		J. Duckworth	2	3		1st Round
		J. Nieminen	6	6		Dec 30, Completed
		M. Matosevic	5	6	77	1st Round
		J. Benneteau	7	4	64	Dec 30, Completed

Aircel Chennai Open

Over in India at the Aircel Chennai Open the highest seed to play in the first round,Vasek Pospisil (the top 4 have first round byes) battled to a 63 75 win over one of Britain’s most promising youngsters Kyle Edmund. 18 year old wildcard Edmund produce high quality tennis, especially in the second set against a player ranked more than 300 places above him. The match got off to a good start for the Canadian with a 3-0 lead against a slightly nervous Edmund which was enough of a margin for Popisil to take it 63. The second set was a much more even match with blistering serves from both players and Edmund coming back from 0-40 down in one game to take it. Unfortunately at 5-5 the Brit faltered and experience shown with the fifth seed easily breaking him and then took the match 75. In other matches there was wins for Smyczek, Vesely and Sela. Full results are below:-

5		V. Pospisil	6	7		1st Round
		K. Edmund	3	5		Dec 30, Completed
		D. Sela	6	6		1st Round
		L. Lacko	4	2		Dec 30, Completed
		J. Nedunchezhiyan	5	2		1st Round
		J. Vesely	7	6		Dec 30, Completed
		Y. Lu	6	6		1st Round
		T. Smyczek	4	2		Dec 30, Completed

2014 Qatar ExxonMobil Open

Over in Qatar there will be two British men in the main draw after Dan Evans impressively came through qualifying. After two previous wins over Michael Shabaz and Jan Hernych, in the final round of Qualifying the Brit world 150 dismissed japans Daniel Taro 62 62. Meanwhile in the main draw there has already been first round wins. 2011 finalist Gael Monfils eased to a comfortable 76 62 win over Santiago Giraldo. The Colombian put up a good start in the first set matching the Frenchman game by game however things quickly went wrong for Giraldo in the tiebreak with a series of errors leading to him to lose it 1-7. This then had a impact on his mentality for the second set and struggled to regain the consistency he had in the first set. Thomas Berdych's Start to his season got off to a bad way with a first round defeat against Croatia's Ivo Karlovic. Berdych who is the world number 7 and the only top ten player to not win a title in 2013 lost two close tie breaks 67(7-9) 67(4-7). In the match Karlovic who was stuck down with viral meningitis earlier on in the year fired a impressive 24 aces. The other winner so far is Poland's Łukasz Kubot who beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver 64 63.