AUCKLAND: Marcos Baghdatis shrugged off injury concerns to reach the second round of the ATP Auckland Classic with a tough straight sets win over Frenchman Adrian Mannarino on Tuesday. The eighth-seeded Cypriot showed no sign of an ankle injury that forced him to retire from last week’s Qatar Open, moving freely in his 6-4, 6-4 win at the Australian Open warm-up tournament in New Zealand. But the world number 36, a former Australian Open finalist, struggled with a misfiring serve, going down a break to Mannarino early in the first set. He immediately broke back and the pair went toe-to-toe, with Mannarino fending off one set point during a 41-shot rally but eventually succumbing. Baghdatis said it was good preparation for the season-opening Grand Slam in Melbourne. “I was solid through the baseline, I think I could improve on my serve a bit,” he said. Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun beat rising star Karen Khachanov 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (11/9) in a rollercoaster match that saw the world number 61 squander four match points before finally downing the towering Russian. Fifth-seeded Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas crashed out in a straight sets defeat to Joao Sousa of Portugal. With the tournament’s top four seeds given a bye into the second round, Ramos- Vinolas was the higest-ranked player on display in the opening round. But he failed to perform as Sousa ran away with the first set 6-1, then snuffed out a Ramos-Vinolas comeback to take the second 7-5. Australian-born Briton Brydan Klein battled through to a 6-1, 6-7 (6/7), 7-6 (7/3) win over Argentina’s Facundo Bagnis, while American qualifier Ryan Harrison breezed past Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-1, 6-2. New Zealand’s last local hope Artem Sitak lost to France’s Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-2.