World No. 1 Andy Murray began his 2017 ATP World Tour season in fine fashion on Tuesday when he defeated Jeremy Chardy 6-0, 7-6(2) at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. The Briton is now 25 matches unbeaten.

Murray came out fresh in the first set, dropping only seven points. The Dunblane native secured the first round victory after 81 minutes. He will next face Gerald Melzer, who needed two hours to defeat Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-2.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the fifth seed, fought his way past Andrey Kuznetsov 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 in 87 minutes and awaits the winner of the match between Dustin Brown and Facundo Bagnis. The Frenchman is making his first appearance in Doha since beating Gael Monfils in the 2012 final.

Sixth seed Ivo Karlovic fired 13 aces and did not face a break point to beat Illya Marchenko 7-6(5), 7-6(0). He next faces NextGen star Karen Khachanov, a 6-1, 6-3 winner over Mubarak Shannan Zayid in 57 minutes. Elsewhere, Seventh seed Philipp Kohlschreiber overcame Malek Jaziri 6-2, 7-6(3) in one hour and 43 minutes.

Top Team Advances To Quarter-Finals

World No. 1 doubles team Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares began their 2017 season with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Marcos Baghdatis and Marcin Matkowski. They next face David Marrero and Nenad Zimonjic in the quarter-finals.

Second seeds Mate Pavic and Alexander Peya were upset by Nicolas Almagro and Fernando Verdasco. The all-Spanish duo won 7-6(3), 5-7, 10-7 to set a quarter-final meeting with Facundo Bagnis and Jiri Vesely, who were 6-4, 7-6(7) winners over Philipp Kohlschreiber and Jan-Lennard Struff. Third seeds Vasek Pospisil and Radek Stepanek beat Paolo Lorenzi and Florian Mayer 6-3, 6-4 to reach the last eight.

Benoit Paire lost just three of his first service points (23/26) to beat Konstantin Kravchuk 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday at the Aircel Chennai Open. The fifth-seeded Frenchman next faces home hope Yuki Bhambri, a 6-1, 6-1 winner over Indian compatriot Ramkumar Ramanathan.

Seventh seed Mikhail Youzhny, who lifted the trophy in 2008 (d. Nadal), proved too strong for wild card Saketh Myneni, 6-4, 6-3. He will next face Renzo Olivo, a 7-6(3), 6-2 victor over wild card Casper Ruud.

Yen-Hsun Lu, the eighth seed, topped Radu Albot 6-2, 6-1 to set a second-round meeting with NextGen’s Daniil Medvedev. Aljaz Bedene, who reached his first ATP World Tour final as a qualifier in Chennai two years ago (l. to Wawrinka), will play fourth seed Martin Klizan after he saved all five break points he faced in recording his third straight win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in a 6-3, 6-3 victory.

In doubles, James Cerretani and Philipp Oswald upset top seeds Jonathan Erlich and Scott Lipsky 6-4, 1-6, 10-8 to reach the quarter-finals.

Sixth seed Lucas Pouille recovered from a disastrous start to get the better of his French compatriot Gilles Simon for the first time on Tuesday at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp. Roger Federer’s training partner during the off-season, who is currently No. 15 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, edged past Simon 7-6(6), 7-6(4) in two hours and six minutes.

Pouille was down 0-5 in first set against Simon and worried that he might be headed for a repeat of the 6-0, 6-1 loss to Simon in Miami last year. But he rallied en route to claiming his first win in three career meetings. Pouille saved two sets points in the first set at 2-5, 30/40 and at 5/6 in the tie-break, and another two set points at 4-5 in the second set.

“I used what happened in Miami as inspiration to fight back,” said Pouille. “I tried to stay focused, to be solid, more consistent, a little more aggressive and things turned out better.”

In other first-round matches, wild card Sam Groth delighted the local crowd with a 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 win over Pierre-Hugues Herbert. The Aussie held serve to stay in the match at 4-5 in the deciding set. Groth improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head against Herbert to 2-0, with the other win also coming in Brisbane in 2014.

“It’s been a while since I had a tour-level win. After last year it was nice to start the year with a win, that’s for sure,” said Groth, who struggled with injuries throughout 2016. “Foot feels good, body feels good, had a full off-season. I felt like I was moving better today than I probably moved for the whole of last year.”

Next up for the big server is fourth seed Dominic Thiem. The Austrian, currently No. 8 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 2-0, with both straight-set performances coming this past season in Miami and Stuttgart.

Qualifier and #NextGen star Jared Donaldson recorded an impressive 6-4, 6-4 win over veteran Gilles Muller. The 20-year-old American won 82 per cent of his first serve points and wrapped up victory in just 75 minutes. His reward is a tough second-round battle against third seed Kei Nishikori.

Viktor Troicki advanced on Tuesday with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over qualifier and #NextGen star Yoshihito Nishioka. Next up for the Serbian is second seed Stan Wawrinka. The Swiss star leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 6-0, including two victories this past season at Roland Garros and St. Petersburg.

Rafael Nadal returned to the ATP World Tour for the first time in two-and-a-half months to beat 2012 finalist Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 6-3 on Tuesday night at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp. The Spanish superstar, who is making his debut at the ATP World Tour 250 hard-court tournament, will next face Mischa Zverev in the second round.

It was a battle between one of the ATP World Tour’s heaviest top-spinners, Nadal, versus one of flattest hitters, Dolgopolov, who gained the first break in the third game. Nadal responded by winning four straight games to wrap up the 36-minute opener and broke Dolgopolov in the fifth and ninth games of the second set. Dolgopolov had won the pair’s previous two meetings at the 2014 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and at the 2015 Aegon Championships in London.

Zverev, who rose 121 spots to a 2016 year-end No. 51 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, overcame qualifier Alex De Minaur 6-3, 6-3 in 68 minutes during the evening session.