Ancic Advances in Style at ATP Mumbai

The second-seeded Ancic crushed Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-2. He will next meet the winner of Czech Robin Vik and Italian Stefano Galvani.

Ancic missed more than two months this summer due to a back injury.

"It was not an easy outing in Beijing [last week] after coming back from injury but the good part was I got a lot of matches to play," Ancic said. "Now in Mumbai I will continue my rehabilitation and I hope I can go far. It is very hot and humid here and these are tough conditions to play in. I may have won in straight sets but it was not an easy match."

Also posting wins on the first day was No. 6 seed Bjorn Phau who defeated India native Karan Rastogi of India 6-0, 6-3. Phau was a semifinalist in Casablanca and was a quarterfinalist in Chennai, Dubai and San Jose.

British 26-year-old James Auckland earned his first career tour singles match win over fellow qualifier Frank Moser of Germany 6-1, 6-4. Also, Japanese veteran Gouichi Motomura defeated Jasper Smit of the Netherlands 3-6, 6-0, 7-6(5).