CASABLANCA, Morocco -- Carlos Berlocq of Argentina hit nine aces as he rallied to beat fifth-seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta 4-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4 on clay in the first round of the Grand Prix Hassan II on Monday.
Both players dropped serve four times. Berlocq advances to meet wild-card entry Nicolas Almagro of Spain or qualifier Taro Daniel of Japan, who play Tuesday.
Also, seventh-seeded Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin labored to a 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 win against Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
Kukushkin, who saved 12 of 14 break points, broke the Spaniard in the fourth game of the deciding set to take control and set up a second-round match against third-seeded Czech Jiri Vesely, who had a bye.
Germany's Dustin Brown breezed past Andrey Kuznetsov 6-2, 6-4, breaking the Russian's serve twice in each set, to set up a meeting against No. 2 Martin Klizan of Slovakia.