Muller, Kohlschreiber Reach Rotterdam Second Round

Gilles Muller will take on second seed and 2014 runner-up Marin Cilic in the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament second round after beating Andreas Seppi for the first time in their fourth tour-level meeting. Muller, who has already reached two ATP World Tour semi-finals this year, hit 19 aces to beat Seppi 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 in two hours and seven minutes on Tuesday. Last week, Muller lost to eventual champion Roberto Bautista Agut in the Sofia semi-finals.

Another player who performed well in the Bulgarian capital, Philipp Kohlschreiber, improved to 6-0 lifetime against Julien Benneteau with a 6-4, 6-4 win in 90 minutes. Benneteau, the 2013 finalist, struck 14 aces. Kohlschreiber goes onto face qualifier Ivan Dodig in the second round.

Elsewhere, 19-year-old Hyeon Chung battled past Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. He’ll next face Sofia finalist and eighth seed Viktor Troicki or qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov.

Top seed Richard Gasquet withdrew from the ATP World Tour 500 tournament due to viral illness (flu) and was replaced in the main draw by lucky loser Evgeny Donskoy.