BARCELONA, Spain (AP)—Santiago Giraldo of Colombia eliminated 13th-seeded Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil 7-5, 6-3 in the opening round of the Barcelona Open on Monday.
Giraldo saved two set points in the first set and four of five break points in the second. He will play Albert Ramos, who beat Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5 in an all-Spanish match.
All other seeded players in action advanced. No. 11 Albert Montanes of Spain beat Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia 6-2, 6-2, and will play Benoit Paire after the French player rallied to oust Spain’s Pablo Carreno-Busta 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-2.
No. 12 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain defeated Ukrainian Denis Istomin 7-6 (6), 6-3, and 14th-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa beat Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.
Also, 16th-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina routed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 6-4, 6-1, while Spain’s Marcel Granollers downed Germany’s Daniel Brands 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-1.
Blaz Kavcic, Robin Haase, Victor Hanescu, and Fabio Fognini were other first-round winners.
