Slovakian Dominik Hrbaty brushed off a first-round US Open exit by making light work of his opening match at the China Open on Monday with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over South African Rik De Voest.
The fifth seed was joined in the second round of the $500,000 tournament by Asia's top player Paradorn Srichaphan, who downed Germany's Rainer Schuettler 6-3, 6-3 on a warm evening at the Beijing Tennis Centre.
Sixth seeded Thai Srichaphan raced through the first set against an error-prone Schuettler and secured his place in the last 16 with an ace after an hour and six minutes.
South Korea's Lee Hyung-Taik, the eighth seed, also boosted Asian pride with his 6-3 6-4 victory over Russian Igor Kunitsyn.
Earlier, mainland China's representation in the tournament was halved when wild card Yu Xin Yuah was beaten 6-1 6-4 by Taiwan's Wang Yeu-Tzuoo.
The top four seeds, including US Open semi-finalist Nikolay Davydenko, are scheduled to play their opening matches on Tuesday.
Now in his 10th year on the ATP circuit, Hrbaty looked every inch the seasoned professional as he imposed his game on De Voest, who has spent most of his year battling it out on the Challenger circuit.
Hrbaty, 28, conceded the scoreline was not a true reflection of the contest, although tellingly the South African dug deepest trying to save his own serve and ultimately the match.
"I played well but he didn't play badly and there were some good rallies," said Hrbaty. "I won all the rallies and that was the difference today."
However, Hrabty was not yet thinking about a seventh ATP title despite competing in a field weakened by the withdrawals through injury and illness of Spain's world number two Rafael Nadal and Argentina's David Nalbandian, ranked fourth.
"I'm not the kind of player that looks too far ahead," the world number 28 told reporters, readjusting the bags of ice strapped to his right arm as a precaution against a recurrence of the injuries that blighted his start to the year.
"I'm happy that I'm seeded so I won't play one of the better guys until the quarter-finals... but there's plenty of tough opponents out there."
