LOS ANGELES(AP) Jesse Levine beat fellow American Bobby Reynolds 6-2, 6-3 on Monday in the opening round of the L.A. Tennis Open.
Levine won for the sixth time in nine matches, and will face top-seeded Tommy Haas in the second round on Wednesday.
I felt I played well,'' Levine said.My first-serve percentage was pretty high and I was hitting the ball really good.''
If he advances further, Levine could have a rematch with Marat Safin for the first time since beating him in the opening round at Wimbledon.
Levine said he ran into Safin on Sunday and often-mercurial Russian ``just said hi. I was a little nervous about because he's three times as big as me, but he just said hi.''
Safin, the No. 8 seed in this 28-player field that is void of any top 20 players, was to face Pete Sampras later Monday night in an exhibition rematch of their 2000 U.S. Open final, which Safin won.
Levine, a 5-foot-9, 150-pound left-hander who likes playing on grass, came out of qualifying to beat Safin in four sets and went on to lose in the round of 32 at Wimbledon and said he ``took some confidence'' from that event. He followed that by reaching the quarterfinals on grass at Newport, R.I., and lost in the second round after qualifying at Indianapolis.
In other first round matches, Australian Chris Guccione beat American Kevin Kim, 6-1, 6-4, and Robert Kendrick overwhelmed fellow American Vince Spadea, 6-0, 6-0.