LOS ANGELES, July 30 (UPI) -- Sam Querrey, who lost in the finals of his last two tournaments, moved past the first round of the Los Angeles Tennis Open Wednesday with a straight-sets win.
Querrey defeated Denis Istomin in the last of the first-round matches 6-2, 6-0. Querry, seeded sixth this week, recently fell to Rajeev Ram in the finals of the Hall of Fame Championships and then dropped a decision to Robby Ginepri in the finals of the Indianapolis Championships.
His second-round opponent will be qualifier Ryan Sweeting.
No. 8 seed Marat Safin earned a quarterfinal berth by outlasting Ernests Gulbis 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Safin will meet top-seeded Tommy Haas in the next round if Haas can get past Jesse Levine.
A quarterfinal match between John Isner and Carsten Bell was set up when both captured their second-round outings.
Isner claimed a marathon tiebreaker in defeating Marcos Baghdatis 6-3, 7-6 (13-11). Ball advanced when Dmitry Tursunov retired in the second set.
