Brisbane, Australia (My Sportsbook) - Spain's Fernando Verdasco was a first- round winner on Monday at the $484,750 Brisbane International, while American Mardy Fish was handed a three-set loss at the 2009 season-opening ATP World Tour event.

Verdasco, the tournament's third seed, rolled past 16-year-old Aussie wild card Bernard Tomic by a 6-4, 6-2 score in just over an hour of action. Verdasco broke Tomic four times en route to victory.

Tomic was making his ATP debut.

The sixth-seeded Fish rallied after dropping the first set to Jurgen Melzer of Austria, but the American was ultimately dealt a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4) setback.

Radek Stepanek was among the winners on Monday, as the eighth-seeded Czech dispatched Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-2, 6-2, while Finland's Jarkko Nieminen moved on by defeating wild card Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 5-7, 6-1, 6-4. Nieminen was last year's runner-up to Frenchman Michael Llodra at this event, when it was held in Adelaide.

Top-seeded Novak Djokovic is slated to open play here on Tuesday against rising Latvian Ernests Gulbis. The Serbian Djokovic is the reigning Australian Open champion and captured this tournament in Adelaide in 2007.

Brisbane serves as a tune-up for the Aussie Open, which will commence January 19 in Melbourne.