Fifth seeded Rajeev Ram of America prevailed 6-7(3) 6-3 6-3 against wild card entrant Rik de Voest in the opening round of the SA Tennis Open, Johannesburg on Monday.

The American earned the break twice in both the second and third sets to post his first tour-level win since a third-round showing last summer at Pilot Pen Tennis in New Haven.

Eight seeded Stephane Robert of France overcame a first set deficit to beat American Brendan Evans 3-6 6-2 6-2. Another Frenchman Laurent Recouderc downed Belgian Steve Darcis 3-6 6-3 6-4. 

In other results of the day, Filip Prpic of Sweden defeated Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-1 6-3. Localite Fritz Wolmarans battled past France’s Edouard Roger-Vasselin 4-6 6-2 6-2. Wolmarans fired 17 aces in the match.

Benjamin Balleret of Monaco scored a 6-4 7-5 win over Switzerland’s Alexander Sadecky and Noam Okun of Israel defeated another Swiss, Roman Valent 6-3 7-5.

“My confidence hasn’t been the greatest and with the rain delays it was 10 hours from start to finish in our match,” said Okun

“So to finally close out the match was not only a relief but a confidence booster.”

Heavy rains had severely delayed the start of play on Monday at the SA Tennis Open.