Lajovic, Carreno Busta Advance To Chengdu Second Round

Fifth seed Dusan Lajovic, who captured his first ATP Tour title in July at the Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag, struck 10 aces to beat Juan Ignacio Londero of Argentina 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in one hour and 45 minutes on Tuesday at the Chengdu Open.

Lajovic now challenges South African lucky loser Lloyd Harris, who dominated on serve to overcome Marton Fucsovics of Hungary 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 55 minutes.

Elsewhere, former World No. 10 Pablo Carreno Busta lost just six of his first-service points in a 6-3, 6-4 win over Radu Albot of Moldova in 80 minutes for a second-round encounter against third-seeded Frenchman Benoit Paire.

Belarusian Egor Gerasimov, who reached last week’s St. Petersburg Open semi-finals (l. to Medvedev), set up a meeting against top-seeded American John Isner after he beat Zhe Li, a Chinese wild card, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in one hour and 57 minutes.

Fernando Verdasco will next face Cristian Garin after knocking out Australian qualifier Alexei Popyrin 6-2, 7-5 in 74 minutes.