Upsets mark Day One in Adelaide tournament

ADELAIDE, Australia, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Three seeded players, including No. 4 Gilles Simon, were ousted Monday in first-round play at the Next Generation Adelaide tennis tournament in Australia.

Simon dropped a 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 decision to Michael Llodra while fifth-seeded Radek Stepanek was behind 7-6 (7-3), 4-3 when he retired because of a heel injury, allowing wild-card entrant Joseph Sirianni to advance.

Also, seventh-seeded Juan Martin del Potro was handled easily by Michael Russell 6-3, 6-3.

Also winning Monday were Mischa Zverev, Benjamin Becker and Sam Querrey.

Adelaide native Lleyton Hewitt, who has won this event twice, is this week's No. 1 seed. Novak Djokovic won the event last January but isn't playing at Adelaide this time.