Kuala Lumpur - American Brendan Evans earned the first victory of the week as ATP tennis returned to Malaysia after an absence of a decade and a half when he defeated fellow qualifier and compatriot Michael Yani 6-3, 6-4 Monday. The Malaysia Open, headed by Russian Nikolay Davydenko on the top seeding ahead of Spain's Fernando Verdasco, with Sweden's French Open finalist Robin Soderling on third.
Starting with a distinct confidence edge could be French fifth seed Gael Monfils, who flew in Monday after lifting the second title of his career at the weekend with a win in Metz, France, over Philipp Kohlschreiber.
The number 13 arrived after a flight from Europe and will have a short turnaround time before starting in the first round against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.
"I'm very happy about winning this second title," said the Frenchman, whose only other title came four years ago. "I have been waiting for it for a long time.
The event marks the start of a busy period in Asia, with a concurrent tournament running this week in Bangkok. Next week is a double-up between Tokyo and Beijing while the Shanghai Masters tops the bill in a fortnight.
Only a handful of matches were set at the Putra stadium for opening day, with Kazak Andrey Golubev taking on recovering American back injury victim Taylor Dent, out for more than two years until the summer.
Taiwan's Lu Yen-Hsun was playing 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis, ranked 103 after injury problems of his own in 2009.
