Lleyton Hewitt set up a second round meeting with John Isner after defeating Lukas Rosol in the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Hewitt, twice a winner of the tournament, was a 6-4 3-6 6-1 winner against Rosol.
Two breaks of serve were enough for Australian number one Bernard Tomic to ease into the second round with a straight sets win over Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci.
Tomic won 6-4 6-3 with a break of serve in each set in a match which lasted 68 minutes.
Indian Wells debutant David Goffin, of Belgium, was a 4-6 6-3 6-4 winner over Serbia’s Viktor Troicki in just under two hours.
Former world number three David Nalbandian saved seven of eight break points on the way to beating Spain’s Marcel Granollers 6-4 6-2 to continue his return from a six-month injury lay-off.
South Africa’s Kevin Anderson, returning from elbow surgery, defeated Victor Hanescu 7-6 (8/6) 6-3.
France’s Benoit Paire took three sets to beat Poland’s Lukasz Kubot 5-7 7-5 6-2 and Cyprus’ Marcos Baghdatis suffered a shock 6-0 7-6 (7/3) defeat to German qualifier Daniel Brands.
There were also wins for Argentina’s Lorenzo Mayer, Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen, Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi, Germany’s Mischa Zverev and America’s Wayne Odesnik.
Ivan Dodig also won through to the second round along with Denis Istomin, Ernests Gulbis and Ryan Harrison.
In the women’s event, American 16-year-old Taylor Townsend claimed her first WTA Tour win with a 3-6 7-6 (7/1) 6-3 defeat of world number 57 Lucie Hradecka.
Wild card Townsend took two hours 11 minutes to defeat her Czech opponent to set up a meeting with Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic.
There was disappointment for British players Laura Robson and Heather Watson.
Robson lost 2-6 7-6 (7/2) 6-1 to Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson and Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu beat Watson 6-2 6-4.
Poland’s Urszula Radwanska, younger sister of Agnieszka, set up a second round meeting with American Sloane Stephens after beating Holland’s Arantxa Rus 6-3 6-3 in 88 minutes.
Monica Niculescu needed just 52 minutes to dismiss qualifier Elina Svitolina 6-0 6-0 to earn a clash with Belgium’s number 28 seed Kirsten Flipkens.
There were also wins for Kimiko Date-Krumm, Alize Cornet, Kiki Bertens, Mirjana Lucic-Baroni and Jamie Hampton.
Daniela Hantuchova won through to the second round along with Alexandra Dulgheru, Magdalena Rybarikova, Stefanie Voegele, Garbine Muguruza and Madison Keys.