Bangkok - Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands has advanced to the second round of the Thailand Open by beating seventh-seeded Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-3, 7-6 (2) on Monday.
The 75th-ranked Sijsling will next face Robin Haase of the Netherlands. Haase beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 6-2, 6-4 at the Impact Arena.
Haase says "it will be nice to have one Dutch player in the quarterfinals."
The top four seeded players, Tomas Berdych, defending champion Richard Gasquet, Milos Raonic and Gilles Simon, all received a bye in the first round.
Results on the first day of the Thailand Open on Monday (x denotes seeded player):
First round:
Robin Haase (NED) bt Daniel Gimeno-Traver (ESP) 6-2, 6-4
Igor Sijsling (NED) bt Jarkko Nieminen (FIN x7) 6-3, 7-6 (7/2)
Feliciano Lopez (ESP x6) bt Laslo Djere (SRB) 6-3, 6-3