Unseeded Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer scored the first major upset of the 2015 China Open in Beijing, stunning No. 8-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6(4), 6-2 to advance to the second round.

Tsonga, who was coming off his first title of the year on his home turf in Metz, France (d. Simon), was up a break and had a chance to close out the first set with his opponent serving at 3-5. But Haider-Maurer battled back to force a tie-break and was soon in control. Trailing 4-2 in the second, Tsonga called for a medical timeout, complaining of dizziness.

“It’s not really important what happened when I was a little bit dizzy,” said Tsonga, who’s now 25-13 on the year. “The most important thing for me was the start of the match and this first set I lost. The second set I didn’t play well. That’s it. Today I didn’t lose because I was dizzy, I just lost because I was bad, and that’s it.”

Tsonga, a runner-up to Novak Djokovic in Beijing in 2012, landed just 52 per cent of his first serves. Despite seven aces, he registered four double faults. Haider-Maurer, No. 64 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, won 76 per cent of his first-serve points, and converted three of four break point opportunities. This was their first career meeting.

Seventh seed David Goffin made a strong start, dismissing Andreas Seppi 6-2, 6-3 in 66 minutes. The Belgian broke serve four times from six opportunities as he claimed his 33^rd win of the season. The 24-year-old Goffin is playing for the first time since leading Belgium into the Davis Cup final with victory over Argentina last month. He goes on to face another Italian, Fabio Fognini, who needed just 59 minutes to beat Martin Klizan 6-2, 6-1.

Chinese No. 1 Ze Zhang could face top seed Novak Djokovic in the second round after battling past Denis Istomin 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 to earn his third tour-level win of the season. World No. 219 Zhang reached the quarter-finals of this ATP World Tour 500 hard-court tournament in 2012 (l. to Mayer). Five-time Djokovic opens his campaign on Tuesday against Simone Bolelli.

Elsewhere, Lukas Rosol came from behind to beat qualifier Aljaz Bedene 1-6, 7-6(6), 6-3 in two hours and seven minutes.