Fernando Verdasco of Spain rallied to beat Marin Cilic of Croatia 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 and advance to the second round of the Paris Masters on Monday. Julien Benneteau of France, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain, Kevin Anderson of South Africa and Philipp Kohlschreiber and Florian Mayer of Germany also advanced. Cilic hit a forehand winner to take the first set but Verdasco bounced back by jumping to 3-0 leads in the second and third sets. “It's slower than last year,” Verdasco said. “I prefer maybe a little bit more this court because it's slower and I have more time to prepare my shots.” Verdasco is hoping to be on the Spain team for the Davis Cup final next month. Verdasco will next face fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic. Benneteau defeated Milos Raonic of Canada, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-4 and will take on 13th-seeded Andy Roddick. The French wild-card entry reached the final of the Winston-Salem Open in August, improving his confidence and ranking to No. 54 after being 87th six months ago. “He took his chances and he capitalized on his opportunities,” Raonic said. “I didn't get my opportunities. The game he broke me, he hit three winners. The thing is, today he was actually hitting a little bit harder the serve than I expected.” Earlier, Kohlschreiber defeated Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-4, 6-2. Garcia-Lopez edged Colombian qualifier Santiago Giraldo 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 and will next play sixth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France. Giraldo slammed his racket against the ground in anger after sending a backhand into the net to lose the match, despite winning 97 points compared to 94 for Garcia-Lopez. Mayer ousted Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-3 to meet seventh-seeded Mardy Fish of the United States. Anderson slammed 13 aces to outlast Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. The tournament is the last chance for some players to secure one of the last three remaining spots for the ATP World Tour Finals in London.
