Defending champ Rosol wins Winston-Salem opener

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) Defending champion Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic opened with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory Monday over Latvia's Ernests Gulbis in the first round of the Winston-Salem Open.

The 6-foot-5 Rosol served 14 aces and took advantage of a break point in the seventh game of the first set to improve to 3-1 all-time against Gulbis, and 2-1 this year, in the final tournament before next week's U.S. Open.

In other first-round results at the Wake Forest Tennis Center, France's Pierre-Hugues Herbert beat Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3, 6-2; Slovakia's Martin Klizan downed Turkey's Marsel Ilhan 7-6 (1), 6-2; and Italy's Simone Bolelli defeated Argentina's Federico Delbonis 6-4, 6-3.

Among those playing in Monday's evening matches are Germany's Tommy Haas, who is returning to the pro tour after a year off following knee surgery, and Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov, a semifinalist last week at Cincinnati.