Belgian qualifier David Goffin extended his winning streak to 23 matches on Monday when he beat defending champion Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the Winston-Salem Open, a tuneup for next week's US Open.
Goffin won his first ATP Tour title last month in Kitzbuhel, Austria. He lost in the first round to Andy Murray at Wimbledon and then won ATP Challenger Tour events in the Netherlands, Poland and Finland.
"At the beginning of the summer, I didn't expect these results," said Goffin, who will face Argentina's Leonardo Mayer in the second round. "Now, I'm still continuing to win. I'm pretty happy with the way I'm playing at the moment. What can I say?"
After ending the month by winning in Austria, Goffin - whose world ranking has climbed from 106th to 62nd during the run - won back-to-back qualifying matches in straight sets to make the main draw for the Winston-Salem Open.
"The conditions were tough today - the humidity made for a really difficult match," said Goffin, who lost to Melzer in four sets in the opening round of the French Open last May. "After the first set, I think he was really frustrated. He started making some mistakes. I took my chances, and it turned out really well."
Fifth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain overcame a tiebreaker loss in the first set to beat Dustin Brown of Germany 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-2.
Sam Querrey of the United States got two key services breaks to beat Spain's Pere Riba 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.Querrey, who had advanced to the semi-finals the last two years, will next face fellow American Steve Johnson in the second round.
In other matches, France's Paul-Henri Mathieu overcame a brief rain delay to beat Robby Ginepri of the US 6-3, 7-5; Adrian Mannarino of France downed Bosnia's Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 6-2; Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan beat Marcos Giron of the US 6-4, 6-4; Canada's Frank Dancevic battled to a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 win over Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci; Poland's Jerzy Janowicz downed Argentina's Carlos Berlocq 6-1, 6-4; Argentina's Federico Delbonis beat Slovakia's Martin Klizan 7-6 (5), 6-4; and Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands defeated Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev 7-6 (5), 6-3.
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