Seppi Makes Winning Return To Sydney

Fifth seed Andreas Seppi, who is making his 11th consecutive trip to Sydney, kicked off his tournament with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win over Denis Istomin on Monday.

The 2013 semi-finalist (l. to Tomic) improved his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Istomin to 8-3. The Italian overcame a slow start to secure the first set, then saw the Uzbek fight back from a break down in the second set to force a decider.

Seppi, whose only hard-court loss to Istomin came in a five-set thriller at the 2013 US Open, then took over the match, racing to a 4-0 lead before closing out the win in one hour and 42 minutes.

Aussie wild card Jordan Thompson, making his Sydney main draw debut, earned his first ATP World Tour main draw victory on Monday when Martin Klizan retired while 6-2, 4-0 down. The 21 year old, No. 149 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, fired five aces and did not face a break. In the second round, Thompson will face top seed and countryman Bernard Tomic.