U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic, Third seed Tomas Berdych and Bulgarian star Grigor Dimitrov won their opening matchup at the China Open in Beijing on Monday.

The 26-year-old Croatian defeated wild card entry Bai Yan of China in two sets 6-3 6-4. He saved all four break points that he was faced with and won 76 percent of first-serve points in a match that lasted an hour and 21 minutes.

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This is Cilic's first appearance after winning the last Grand Slam tournament of the year in New York and hopes to be one of the top eight players to accumulate enough points to be part of the year-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.

"It's important for me to keep focusing on the improvement of my game and try to recreate the game I was playing at the US Open," Cilic said. "It's going to be a process for me at all the tournaments to keep my level at the high point where I want it to be."

Cilic will face Portugal's Joao Sousa who won against Russian qualifier Teymuraz Gabashvili after dropping the first set 1-6 7(7)-6(4) 6-4.

Czech Republic's Berdych, another London hopeful, defeated wild card entry Feliciano Lopez of Spain in straight sets 6-1 6-2 to set up a second round matchup against another wild card entry from Serbia, Viktor Troicki who won his first round encounter Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-3 6-4.

Fifth seeded Dimitrov on the other hand had a three-set clash against Spaniard Fenando Verdasco, winning it 6-1 3-6 6-3 in an hour and 35 minutes.

Dimitrov, 23, was 10^th in the list of the road to London but was bumped to 11 when Britain's No. 1 Andy Murray won the Shenzhen Open last week.

Meantime, French Open champion Rafael Nadal made his comeback appearance in the doubles competition along with fellow Spaniard Pablo Andujar but lost to the duo of Berdych and American John Isner in three sets 7-5 4-6 10-4.

TagsMarin Cilic, Tomas Berdych, Grigor Dimitrov, rafael nadal, andy murray