Mikhail Kukushkin, Sam Groth win through at Winston-Salem Open

Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin battled past Nicolas Mahut in the Winston-Salem Open first round as Sam Groth saved two match points on his way through.

Kukushkin completed a 6-4 6-7 (4-7) 6-0 win over Mahut in two hours, eight minutes at the ATP 250 event played on hard-courts in North Carolina.

The world number 55 served for the match at 5-4 up in the second set but was broken, only to recover in the third " losing just 11 points to set up a meeting with second seed Kevin Anderson.

Groth needed almost three hours to overcome American wildcard Jared Donaldson 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (10-8) 7-6 (7-5).

Australian Groth served 18 aces but looked in trouble a set and break down before rallying.

The 27-year-old faced match points when serving in the 10th game as he fought to stay in the contest, before also battling from a break down in the deciding set.

Lu Yen-hsun advanced after a 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 win over Robin Haase and Chung Hyeon edged James Ward 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 6-3.

Diego Schwartzman was a 6-4 7-6 (10-8) winner over Daniel Gimeno-Traver, while Santiago Giraldo was on court for just 10 minutes before progressing.

Giraldo led Steve Darcis 2-0 when the Belgian retired.