Janko Tipsarevic eased into the quarter-finals of the Chennai Open with a straight-sets victory over Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
The world number nine took a little over an hour to beat the Frenchman 6-2 6-3, breaking his opponent four times.
"It's never easy to play your first match of the season. Even though I was off to a flying start of 4-0, an hour before the match, I was feeling a little bit anxious," said Tipsarevic. "He was making some unforced errors early in the match, but I think I was playing really well from start to finish."
Tipsarevic finished runner-up in last year's tournament and must beat Japan's Go Soeda to reach the last four.
The eighth seed needed three sets to beat Indian qualifier Prakash Amritraj 7-6 (7/2) 3-6 6-4 in two hours and 29 minutes.
Sixth seed Robin Haas crashed out after losing 7-5 6-3 to Slovenian Aljaz Bedene, who will face fourth seed and 2011 champion Stanislas Wawrinka.
The Swiss beat Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-4 6-3, breaking the German qualifier once in each set to win in one hour and 21 minutes.
Update:
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