Tomic begins Apia title defense with win

SYDNEY, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Bernard Tomic opened defense of his Apia International Sydney championship with an upset Tuesday of Marcel Granollers.

Tomic ousted Granollers, seeded eighth, 6-3, 6-0 in 59 minutes. Tomic fought off seven of the eight break points he saw in the first set and then didn't allow Granollers a break chance in the second for a win that completed first-round play of the event.

Tomic lost only two of his 14 points on serve in the second set while piling up three breaks and taking 12-of-16 of the points when Granollers served.

Tomic won the first title of his ATP career last year in Sydney.

No. 7-seeded Marin Cilic got by qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. Cilic lost the only break point in the first set but didn't lose his serve after that.

Albert Ramos, taking the place of injured fifth-seeded Vasek Pospisil, came out ahead 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 over Sam Querrey. Querrey had 16 aces and fought off 11 of the 14 break points from Ramos but could only solve Ramos' serve once.

Australian wild cards went 1-1 Tuesday with Marinko Matosevic defeating Florian Mayer 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 but Samuel Groth falling to Radek Stepanek 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.

Other players advancing to the second round Tuesday were Nicolas Mahut, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Blaz Kavcic and Alexandr Dolgopolov.