Tuesday’s opening match at Pat Rafter Arena saw No. 6 seed David Goffin record his first win of 2016, a 6-4, 6-4 decision over Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci at the Brisbane International.

The Belgian surrendered just two points on his first serve (15 for 17) in taking the 40-minute opening set, breaking the left-handed Bellucci at 2-2 to move out in front.

In just their third career FedEx ATP Head2Head encounter (Goffin now leads 2-1), the foes exchanged breaks to open the second set. But Goffin would score his third break of the match at 2-all and consolidate for a 4-2 advantage. He would go on to close out the match in one hour and 22 minutes.

Goffin, 25, overcame four double faults to win 76 per cent (23 of 30) of his first-serve points. He converted three of 10 break-point opportunities. Bellucci finished with seven aces in the losing effort.

In 2015, Goffin became the highest-ranked Belgian in the history of year-end Emirates ATP Rankings at No. 16. He also led Belgium to its first Davis Cup final since 1904 (l. to Great Britain).

Also advancing on Tuesday in Brisbane was Serbia’s Viktor Troicki, a 7-6(3), 6-1 winner over American Steve Johnson in one hour and 10 minutes. Austrian Dominic Thiem overcame a 14-ace performance from home-country favorite James Duckworth, storming back to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Thiem converted three of nine break points in the one-hour and 53-minute comeback.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic required just 51 minutes for his first match win of 2016.

Djokovic, who has finished year-end No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings for four of the past five years, cruised past qualifier Dustin Brown 6-2, 6-2 on Monday at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. 

“It’s been six weeks since I played the last match, so I was very excited to go back to the court and compete and see how I go,” said Djokovic. “Obviously you never know how you’re going to start from the blocks. You can do your best to prepare yourself well, which I did. I think I used the off season very well to train to get my body in the right shape, and I think it was a very good start.”

The Serbian is looking to capture his 60th tour-level title this week at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament. Since a loss to Ivo Karlovic last year in the Doha quarter-finals, he has reached 15 straight finals (11-4).

“I think the biggest challenge is, as it is in any of the previous years for me, is to really be consistent with my success throughout the year, try to stay healthy and try to maintain the high level of performance,” he said. “That’s what I try to focus my mind on.

“If I start thinking too much about certain tournaments, it can present a kind of a distraction to me so you try not to do that. I try to actually be as much as I can in the present and work my way through and effect whatever I can effect. That’s really working on my game, training myself to be strong and to play confident tennis. And I know as a consequence to that, the results will be positive, I’m hoping, obviously.”

Fifth seed Feliciano Lopez bowed out in his first-round match, falling to fellow Spaniard Daniel Munoz de la Nava 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-5 in two hours and 25 minutes. Lopez, who fired 24 aces, managed to convert just one of his nine break point chances. 

World No. 75 Munoz de la Nava was playing his first tour-level match since March 2014. He next meets qualifier Kyle Edmund, currently No. 102, who struck seven aces in a 6-2, 6-3 victory over No. 43-ranked Martin Klizan.

Earlier in the day, seventh seed Jeremy Chardy lost just seven of his service points for a 6-1, 6-1 rout of Mubarak Shannan Zayid in 46 minutes. 

Top-seeded Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, who both competed at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in November last year, saved one match point chance to scrape past Thomaz Bellucci and Steve Johnson 6-4, 3-6, 13-11 on Monday at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp. Herbert and Mahut led 9/6 in the Match tie-break, before Bellucci and Johnson won four straight points to held a match point opportunity at 10/9.

Second seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers denied Daniel Nestor his 1,000th doubles match win. Kontinen and Peers beat Nestor and Radek Stepanek 6-3, 6-3, while third seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski overcame Jonathan Marray and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 6-3, 6-4.

At the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, Teymuraz Gabashvili and Albert Ramos-Vinolas converted their second match point opportunity to defeat Spaniards Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco 7-6(4), 4-6, 11-9 in one hour and 45 minutes. Nadal won the Doha doubles title with Albert Costa in 2005, Marc Lopez in 2009 and 2011 and Juan Monaco last year.