Home favourite Thomaz Bellucci received a standing ovation after dismissing Rio Open presented by Claro top seed Kei Nishikori 6-4, 6-3 on Tuesday.

Nishikori reached the Argentina Open final last week and won their only previous meeting on the clay at the 2015 Roland Garros in straight sets, but the top-ranked Brazilian put in a commanding display to defeat the World No. 5.

“Actually everything didn’t work well,” said Nishikori. “Probably the condition changed a lot from last week: bounce really high and the balls are really heavy. The ball is the most difficult to adjust. I couldn’t feel anything today. I think it wasn’t my day.”

Bellucci, quarter-finalist in 2014, earned a second-round encounter with countryman Thiago Monteiro. The World No. 85 defeated Gastao Elias 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-4.

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World No. 8 Dominic Thiem made his way safely through his opening match, defeating former World No. 8 Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 7-5. The second seed, a semi-finalist last year on his tournament debut, capitalised on three of his five break points en route to the one hour, 35-minute victory. Thiem next faces another Serbian, Dusan Lajovic, as he looks to reach his fourth quarter-final of 2017.

Alexandr Dolgopolov maintained his title-winning form from Buenos Aires last week with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over 2015 champion David Ferrer. Sixth seed Ferrer led their FedEx ATP Head2Head 9-3, however, Dolgopolov managed to repeat his 2014 win in Rio over the Spaniard to advance into the second round.

Two other Spanish seeds avoided the fate of their countryman. Fourth seed Pablo Carreno Busta ousted Brazilian wild card Joao Souza 6-3, 6-2, while fifth seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas beat Stephane Robert 6-2, 6-0. Carreno Busta goes on to face recent Quito champion Victor Estrella Burgos, a 6-2, 7-5 winner over 2016 Rio finalist Guido Pella. Ramos-Vinolas will take on Fabio Fognini, who defeated veteran Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-2, 6-4 to avenge a straight-sets loss in Buenos Aires.

Argentine Federico Delbonis improved to a 4-0 FedEx Head2Head record against Italian Paolo Lorenzi as he rallied for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win in two hours and 13 minutes.

Nicolas Mahut rode a wave of home-crowd support to upset fifth-seeded #NextGenATP star Alexander Zverev at the Open 13 Marseille on Tuesday. The 35-year-old Frenchman posted a 7-6(5), 7-6(5) result over the German in the pair’s first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting.

Zverev, nearly 16 years his opponent’s junior, had claimed his second ATP World Tour title two weeks ago at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier. He fell short despite hitting six aces more and winning half of the 144 points played.

Mahut’s victory sets up a second-round meeting with Norbert Gombos. The Slovak posted a 6-1, 6-1 result over fellow-qualifier Evgeny Donskoy.

Richard Gasquet continued a good night session for the home contingent when he knocked out Robin Haase 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2. The No. 6 seed, coming off a runner-up showing at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier two weeks ago, withstood 14 aces to extend his FedEx Head2Head series with the Dutchman to 4-1. It sets up a second-round showdown with Russian Mikhail Youzhny.

Other French players experienced mixed fortunes at the Open 13 Marseille on Tuesday. Julien Benneteau, the 2010 finalist, prevailed 7-5, 6-4 despite being aced 16 times by fellow wild card, 17-year-old Denis Shapovalov.

But his countrymen Jeremy Chardy and Paul-Henri Mathieu made early exits. Jan-Lennard Struff knocked out Chardy 6-3, 7-5, while Aljaz Bedene fired down 20 aces in a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over 2008 semi-finalist Mathieu.

It was a good day for Ukrainians Sergiy Stakhovsky and Illya Marchenko. Qualifier Stakhovsky posted a 6-2, 6-4 result over Czech Jiri Vesely, while Marchenko saw off Russian Andrey Rublev 6-1, 7-6(6). Stakhovsky claimed 79 per cent of his first-serve points and broke three times to advance, while Marchenko broke four times on his way past the #NextGenATP player.

Top seed Milos Raonic marked his Delray Beach Open debut in emphatic style with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Tim Smyczek on Tuesday.

The World No. 4 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, back in action after a quarter-final showing at the Australian Open, needed just 24 minutes to clinch the opening set against the American qualifier. Smyczek reached the quarter-finals at Delray Beach in 2016, but his challenge looked to be fading when Raonic saved four break points at the start of set two.

The Canadian struck 10 aces and won 90 per cent of points off first serves. He secured the decisive break in the ninth game to book a second-round encounter with #NextGenATP player Borna Coric. The Croatian defeated Santiago Giraldo 6-2, 6-3.

“Overall I have to be happy. I haven’t played much tennis over the last few weeks, and I really put in as much work as I could over the last week to get into my best shape here, and now I’m here. I’ve won my first match and I hope I can continue,” Raonic said. “I feel good.”

In the first match on Stadium Court, top-ranked American Jack Sock prevailed 6-4, 7-6(2) against Moldavian Radu Albot to improve his 2017 match record to 8-1. World No. 21 Sock, who captured his second ATP World Tour singles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland last month, will next face Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

“It’s probably my eighth time playing here if you count the juniors. I have a lot of experience in Delray. I’ve played the junior clays here numerous times. So I have great memories here,” reflected Sock. “I feel a lot more confident this year, a lot stronger, excited to be back and hopefully for many more years.”

To hear Tommy Haas say it, the actual tennis – the winning of matches, the hoisting of trophies – is secondary during his latest and final comeback, which continues this week at the Delray Beach Open.

The 38 year old, who’s coming back after his ninth surgery last April, remains more focused on saying farewell to the places he loves the most and having his oldest daughter watch it all.

“I want to finish on my own terms. That’s really what it’s all about,” Haas told ATP World Tour Uncovered. “I’d like to go back to some of these events that I’ve had a great time playing at and just say goodbye in my own way and see if I can still play some good tennis and mainly also have my oldest daughter Valentina still somewhere on the sidelines cheering me on.”

Before January, when Haas had to retire during his first-round match at the Australian Open, it had been months since 6-year-old Valentina and Haas’ fans had been able to root for him on the court. The German had been out of action since October 2015, when he fell to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round at the Erste Bank Open 500.

Last April, Haas underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament and a ligament-like structure on his right foot, the latest part of his body to go under the knife. Haas had previously endured surgeries on his shoulders, rotator cuffs, elbows, hips and ankles.

Read More: Haas, 38, Planning Another Comeback After Ninth Surgery

But the former World No. 2 has learned to see the positive side of things, and he’s appreciating this extra time during the final stage of his 21-year career.

“I just think that sometimes there’s always a lot of reasons for everything. If I didn’t have maybe the last shoulder surgery again or the foot surgery, maybe Valentina wouldn’t have gotten to see her Dad play,” said Haas, who plans to bring her to events in a few months.

Coming back at least the 11^th time from surgeries has been hard on the 6’2” right-hander. After his foot surgery in April, he couldn’t do much of anything for about four months.

“You lose pretty much all your muscles in your body, and it takes a lot of time to try to get back in some kind of shape,” Haas said.

Before Monday night, when he and Canadian Vasek Pospisil won their first-round doubles match at the Delray Beach Tennis Center, Haas hadn’t won a tour-level contest since 2015 Wimbledon. (Haas makes his Delray Beach singles debut on Tuesday against Memphis Open finalist Nikoloz Basilashvili).

The veteran has also struggled to balance his different roles. In addition to his comeback, he’s working a more than full-time job as the BNP Paribas Open tournament director in Indian Wells. He also has two young daughters at home whom he hates to leave, although Valentina is starting to understand what Daddy has been doing all these years.

“Every time I’m away she always asks me if I’m winning a trophy. Usually the answer is I’m just trying to win a match here,” said Haas, who’s won 15 ATP World Tour titles, including the 2011 Delray Beach Open. “Like I said, it’s going to be great to have her somewhere in the stands, sometime in the next few weeks or months, watching me play and cheering me on – the memories I want to make.”

She will have thousands of people like her in the stands, smiling and cheering for Haas one last time.