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Home-crowd favorite Berlocq into 2nd round in Buenos Aires

Home-crowd favorite Berlocq into 2nd round in Buenos Aires

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Argentina's Carlos Berlocq returns the ball to Italy's Paolo Lorenzi during the Davis Cup first round tennis match in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Sunday, February 5, 2017. Berlocq went on to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3. Photo: AP

BUENOS AIRES: Home-crowd favorite Carlos Berlocq defeated Jozef Kovalik of Slovakia 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday to reach the second round of the clay-court Argentina Open. In another first-round match, Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine beat Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 6-3, 6-3. The four top-seeded players all have byes into the second round and did not play on Tuesday. Kei Nishikori of Japan is No. 1 followed by Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, David Ferrer of Spain, and Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain. The Argentina Open is the second stop on the Latin American clay-court swing. The big event is next week's tournament in Rio de Janeiro, where Nishikori is also seeded No. 1.