It was a great opening day for the young stars of American tennis on Monday, with Mardy Fish, Robby Ginepri, Jeff Morrison, Eric Taino and Brian Vahaly all progressing to the second stage.

Morrison claimed his first ATP win of the season with an impressive 7-5, 6-4 victory over No. 4 seed Wayne Ferreira, the South African who reached the semifinals of the Australian Open last month. The 24-year-old Morrison, who reached the third round at Wimbledon last year, used his serve and volley style to stun the South African.

"It feels very good to get my first win of the year," said Morrison. "I played [Yevgeny] Kafelnikov in the Australian Open and [Nikolay] Davydenko in San Jose and lost two tight matches after playing well, so it's nice to play well and get a win under my belt because that's what this game is all about.

"My game is an aggressive game and I want to get to the net. So right from the beginning, I wanted to put the pressure on him and get up to the net. There aren't too many guys out there that play the way I do anymore, and that works to my advantage."

Ferreira agreed, saying: "I hadn't played a match indoors this season, and the balls are so light and fast, and he's coming at you all the time - there aren't many people who do that anymore so it's tough."

Room-mate

Morrison's room-mate Mardy Fish was a set and 4-2 down before coming back to defeat French qualifier Julien Varlet 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 and set up a potential clash against second seed Paradorn Srichaphan.
Fish, who reached the third round in Melbourne last month, was delighted to fight his way back into the match. "I knew I had to play pretty solid to beat him," said the 21-year-old who served 20 aces during the match.

"I tried to stay positive and not throw my racquets around, because it doesn't help me when I do that. He got pretty tight at the end of the second set, which was uncharacteristic of him. It's great to get through to the second round, and I'm looking forward to meeting Paradorn if he gets through."

Ginepri set up a meeting with either two-time champion Todd Martin or 2001 finalist Davide Sanguinetti with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Sargis Sargsian, the Armenian who reached the fourth round at the Australian Open.

Big Point

"Sargsian had a good run at the Australian Open, but I've been playing pretty well this year and I knew that it was going to be a tough match for both of us and luckily I came out on to today," said Ginepri, who won the Waikoloa Challenger in January. "I held serve throughout the whole match, which was pretty big for me. He hit a drop volley and I ran it down and hit the lob over his head on break point to break him in the second set, which was a pretty big point."

Earlier in the day, Vahaly moved through with a straight sets victory over Germany's Lars Burgmsuller and will next meet Taino, who came back from a set down to defeat last year's Tokyo champion Kenneth Carlsen 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4.

Elsewhere, Sweden's Magnus Norman moved through to the second round when his opponent Nikolay Davydenko retired despite winning the first set.

While leading 5-2, Davydenko - the Russian who won the title in Adelaide in January - slipped and fell on his left wrist. ATP trainer Bill Norris examined the injury, and after carrying on for two more games, Davydenko was in too much pain to continue. He will now have an x-ray on Tuesday before flying back to Europe.