Mason, Ohio: Andy Roddick recovered after losing his temper and the second set in a tiebreaker to reach the second round of the Cincinnati Masters with a 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-1 win over the 46th-ranked Sergiy Stakhovsky on Monday.
With wife and supermodel Brooklyn Decker watching from the stands, Roddick threw his racket to the ground in frustration after blowing a 5-2 lead in the tiebreaker and committing an unforced error on set point against his Ukrainian rival.
The two-time Cincinnati champion gathered himself and raced to 5-0 lead in the deciding set before closing out the match with a forehand winner.
"I don't feel perfect, but good enough," he said. "That third set was actually a blessing in disguise. That's the best I've played in months."
No. 25 Thomaz Bellucci advanced with a 7-6 (6), 7-5 win over 68th-ranked Benjamin Becker before No. 14 Robby Ginepri, a wild-card entry, wrapped up the tournament's first day with a 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 6-2 win over 103rd-ranked Somdev Devvarman.
In earlier matches, Taylor Dent rode a decisive serve advantage to a surprisingly easy 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 24 Feliciano Lopez.
"Today, I wasn't missing many returns and I was getting a ton of free points on my serve," said Dent, who earned a second-round matchup with top-seeded Rafael Nadal.
No. 14 Nicolas Almagro became the second seeded player to be eliminated from the tournament when he fell to 26th-ranked Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 6-3.
No. 11 Marin Cilic fell to Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets on Sunday night.
Also advancing on Monday were No. 102 Paul-Henri Mathieu, who rallied to edge 54th-ranked Victor Hanescu 6-7 (6), 7-6 (2), 6-3, and 47th-ranked Viktor Troicki, who knocked off No. 28 Radek Stepanek 7-5, 6-1. Mathieu is scheduled to meet seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych in the second round on Tuesday.
No. 10 David Ferrer was pushed to three sets before prevailing over 43rd-ranked Alexandr Dolgopolov 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, while 13th-seeded Jurgen Melzer and 21st-ranked Sam Querry both avoided upsets with 6-1, 6-4 wins, Melzer over No. 62 Santiago Giraldo and Querry over No. 48 Philipp Petzschner.
"I felt great, especially on my serve," he said. "He gave me a few errors in the first set there, a couple of wind forehands. I'll take it."
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