Associated Press 10y

David Goffin upsets Jurgen Melzer

Tennis

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Belgian qualifier David Goffin extended his win streak to 23 matches Monday when he beat defending champion Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the Winston-Salem Open, a tuneup for next week's US Open.

Goffin won his first ATP Tour title this past month in Kitzbuhel, Austria. He lost in the first round to Andy Murray at Wimbledon and then won ATP Challenger Tour events in July in the Netherlands, Poland and Finland.

"At the beginning of the summer, I didn't expect these results," said Goffin, who will face Argentina's Leonardo Mayer in the second round. "Now, I'm still continuing to win. I'm pretty happy with the way I'm playing at the moment. What can I say?"

After ending the month with a win in Austria, Goffin -- whose world ranking has climbed from 106th to 62nd during the run -- won back-to-back qualifying matches in straight sets to make the main draw for the Winston-Salem Open.

"The conditions were tough today -- the humidity made for a really difficult match," said Goffin, who lost to Melzer in four sets in the opening round of the French Open this past May. "After the first set, I think he was really frustrated. He started making some mistakes. I took my chances, and it turned out really well."

In other early matches at the Wake Forest Tennis Center, Poland's Jerzy Janowicz downed Argentina's Carlos Berlocq 6-1, 6-4, Argentina's Federico Delbonis beat Slovakia's Martin Klizan 7-6 (5), 6-4, and Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands defeated Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev 7-6 (5), 6-3.

Among those playing at night are Sam Querrey of the U.S. and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain.

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