Top seed Marin Cilic got off to a confident start at the Bank Austria TennisTrophy, an ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament in Vienna, dismissing Colombian Alejandro Falla in straight set Tuesday. He broke his opponent for the fifth time in the match to close out a 6-2, 6-3 victory.

“I think I played really good,” said Cilic. “He wasn’t easy to beat… He’s really consistent from the back, doesn’t give you any free points so I had to earn every point. I was satisfied with the way I played the first set. Second set, he got in there a little more, but I ended up with some good serves. I ended up breaking him and it was much easier to breathe.”

Cilic, 21, is in the midst of a career-best season. He made an impressive start to the season by winning the ATP World Tour 250 titles at Chennai (d. Devvarman) and in his hometown of Zagreb (d. Ancic), and two weeks ago finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic at the China Open in Beijing.

He said of his chances this week: “I’m going to have to play match by match. Definitely the indoor tournaments are never easy because in a few moments you can lose a set, and sometimes it’s tough to come back, so you have to be careful all the time and you have to be very consistent.”

Austrian title hope Jurgen Melzer, the No. 7 seed, was made to work hard for a place in the second round. He won one more point than Switzerland’s Marco Chiudinelli in an evenly matched battle to secure a 7-6(4), 7-6(10) victory in two hours and six minutes.

Melzer, who is making his 10th event appearance, has an opportunity to reach the 200-match wins milestone this week at his home country tournament and currently has a 197-197 career win-loss record on the ATP World Tour. The 28-year-old has reached the Vienna quarter-finals on three occasions, including twice in the past three years.

Feliciano Lopez, who captured his lone ATP World Tour title at the Bank Austria TennisTrophy in 2004 (d. Canas), improved to 15-4 lifetime at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament on Tuesday. The sixth-seeded Spaniard defeated Andreas Haider-Maurer, a 22-year-old Austrian wild card, 6-4, 6-4 in 72 minutes. 

After losing nine straight tour-level matches beginning in June at the Queen’s Club, the 28-year-old Lopez reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final at the Shanghai ATP Masters 1000 Presented by Rolex (l. to Nadal) two weeks ago.

He said about his turnaround: “I was losing so many first rounds. One morning I woke up and I think to myself I have to do something, I have to change something in my life. I didn’t know what to do so I cut my hair and I started wearing a beard. Since then I’ve been winning, so I’m not going to change now.”

Second seed Radek Stepanek made his way comfortably through his opening match, defeating Poland’s Lukasz Kubot 6-4, 6-1 with four breaks of serve. The 30-year-old Czech, a quarter-finalist two weeks ago at the Shanghai ATP Masters 1000 (l. to eventual champ Davydenko), improved to a 40-17 season record.

Fourth-seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber cruised into the second round with a 6-1, 6-3 win over countryman Dieter Kindlmann as he fired nine aces and converted four of his 11 break point opportunities. “There were some tough moments in the match,” Kohlschreiber said afterwards. “I was more lucky today to win the big points and the games after were easier.”

Kohlschreiber, currently No. 24 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings, made his tournament debut last year and reached the semi-finals before falling to eventual champion Gael Monfils.

Lucky loser Michael Berrer, a late replacement for German compatriot and defending champion Philipp Petzschner, who pulled out prior to the match with a left calf injury, made the most of his opportunity to defeat Steve Darcis of Belgium 6-3, 6-2 in 61 minutes.  Darcis, who reached the AEGON Championships quarter-finals at London in June (l. to Ferrero), dropped to 6-18 on the year.