Top-seeded Gael Monfils Advances in Johannesburg

Top-seeded Gael Monfils of France defeated Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia 6-2, 6-1 Tuesday to reach the second round of the SA Tennis Open.

"I was a bit worried about the altitude, playing so high above sea level," Monfils said. "This is fast tennis because the ball travels faster at altitude. You come up to the net more. It's fun."

Third-seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain rallied past Benjamin Balleret of Monaco 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-3. He'll face Blaz Kavcic of Slovakia.

"It was a really hot day and I found it difficult to keep up the intensity," Lopez said. "I was really feeling tired and three double-faults and a few loose shots cost me the second-set tiebreaker. Still, I fought back in the third set when I served well."

Fourth-seeded Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland lost 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to Dustin Brown of Jamaica, and seventh-seeded Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan stopped Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-3, 6-2.

Josselin Ouanna of France beat Harel Levy of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2, and South African wild card Raven Klaasen defeated David Guez of France 6-4, 6-3.