Rotterdam, Netherlands - Swiss Marco Chiudinelli finally cracked the code at the ABN-AMRO World Tennis Tuesday, securing victory on his main draw start with a 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (8-6) defeat of former champion Michael Llodra. France's 2008 winner at the Ahoy stadium was unable to squeeze out victory in the final set after saving match points for Chiudinelli, Swiss number two behind Roger Federer.
Chiudinelli, ranked 54th as his career finally begins to make inroads at age 28, will take on the winner from Serbian top seed Novak Djokovic and Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky.
The Swiss made a breakthrough after missing out in qualifying rounds in 2005 and 2007.
Number 70 Llodra could not translate 16 aces two breaks of serve into a first-round victory, with Chiudinelli breaking five times.
Djokovic stands world number two behind Federer and needs points over the coming month to stay ahead of hot rival Andy Murray, recent Australian Open finalist and Rotterdam holder who is not making a title defence.
France's January Sydney semi-finalist Julien Benneteau scored a minor upset as he took out Croatian seventh seed Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 6-3 in just over two and a half hours.
Turkish qualifier Marsel Ilhan improved to a modest 1-2 in 2010 as he beat Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-1, 6-4.
