Benneteau among winners in Malaysia

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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Seventh-seeded Julien Benneteau came away a straight-set winner in first-round play Tuesday of the Malaysian Open tennis tournament.

Benneteau defeated Carlos Berlocq 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 with a pair of breaks in each set. However, he also dropped serve twice in the first set and had to survive a tiebreaker.

Still, he won two-thirds of the points on serve in the match and lost only five points in four second-set service games.

Matthew Ebden advanced with a 6-0, 7-6 (7-3) decision over Philip Davydenko. Ebden dominated the first set, losing three points while serving and 10 points overall.

In the only other main-draw match on Tuesday's schedule saw Albert Ramos beat Julian Knowle 6-1, 6-4. Ramos had 14 aces in winning three-quarters of the points on serve.