Zhang Zhizhen of China defeated Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France 6-3, 7-6(4) in the first round of men's singles competition at the Cincinnati Open in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Tuesday.

Both players held their first three service games in the first set, before Zhang took advantage of an opening and broke his opponent's fourth service game. The ninth game of the opener later ended with Perricard dropping the set on a double fault.

The Frenchman changed his tactics in the second set and rushed the net more. Meanwhile, his powerful serves continued to pose a strong threat and he held serve in the 12th game to tie the second set at 6-6 and send it to a tiebreaker.

Zhang built a 4-1 lead in the extra session, but Perricard rallied with better backhand play to tie it at 4-4. Zhang got to match point first and prevailed when Perricard hit the ball out of bound to surrender the match.

Zhang's opponent in the second round will be the tournament's No. 6 seed, Andrey Rublev of Russia.