Gasquet pushed while Fritz too much for Tiafoe

Cape Town - Top seed Richard Gasquet was made to work for his spot in the second round of the Winston-Salem Open on Monday.

The Frenchman, playing in just his second tournament following a long injury lay-off, downed Daniel Evans 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in two hours and 28 minutes.

After Gasquest took the opener, a late break in the second saw Evans level matters, but the Briton could not capitalise on a break point early in the third set, with Gasquet the one to make the definitive move by breaking to go 4-2 up.

Taylor Fritz moved past Frances Tiafoe to improve his form ahead of the US Open which starts August 29.

The American came into the match on the back of first-round exits in both the Toronto and Cincinnati Masters but dealt with his opponent in straight sets 6-1 6-4.

The No. 54 in the world only took 63 minutes to grab his first victory over Tiafoe at all levels and will face Fernando Verdasco in the second round.

Mikhail Youzhny beat Australian qualifier James Duckworth in a hard-fought clash that lasted almost two hours.

The Russian eventually rallied to a 7-6 1-6 6-3 victory over Duckworth and progressed to the next round.

Elsewhere, Jiri Vesely bounced back to score a 3-6 6-3 6-3 win over Dutchman Tim Van Rijthoven, while British player Kyle Edmund defeated Rajeev Ram in straight sets 7-5 7-6 (5).

Results from the ATP Winston-Salem tournament on Monday (x denotes seeded player):

2nd round

Richard Gasquet (FRA x1) bt Daniel Evans (GBR) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3

Stephane Robert (FRA) bt Federico Delbonis (ARG x13) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4

1st round

Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) bt James Duckworth (AUS) 7-6 (10/8), 1-6, 6-3

Kyle Edmund (GBR) bt Rajeev Ram (USA) 7-5, 7-6 (7/5)

Donald Young (USA) bt Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) 6-4, 6-1

Aljaz Bedene (GBR) bt James McGee (IRL) 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2

Taylor Fritz (USA) bt Francis Tiafoe (USA) 6-1, 6-4

Lukas Rosol (CZE) bt Victor Estrella (DOM) 6-4, 1-6, 6-1

Diego Schwartzman (ARG) bt Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ) 6-0, 6-2

Jiri Vesely (CZE) bt Tim van Rijthoven (NED) 3-6, 6-3, 6-3

Malek Jaziri (TUN) bt Radu Albot (MDA) 6-2, 6-4

Aljaz Bedene (GBR) bt James McGee (IRL) 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) bt Damir Dzumhur (BIH) 7-6 (7/0), 6-1