Hard-serving Russian Alexander Igoshin sent second-seeded Robin Kern of Germany packing in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 to cause the biggest flutter of the day, even as top-seeded Johan Sebastien Tatlot, France’s best junior this year, survived a first-set scare to wear down South Korea’s Nam Hyun Woo 5-7, 7-6, 6-1 in the second round of the $10,000 ITF Cambodian Futures for the GLF Open at the National Tennis Center yesterday.

In a clash between two big men with booming serves to match, some precision returns by Igoshin went well with his power play as he broke his German adversary four times in all while losing his own serve only once. Kern, a popular winner of the Cambodian F3 back in 2012, could hardly keep pace with the Russian as he began to dictate the tempo of the rallies on his terms.

As if to highlight the strong presence in this event of players from South Korea, who carry with them the reputation of being circuit-hardened toughies, Nam Hyun Woo was giving the top-seed Tatlot a hard time in the first set.

The 18-year-old Tatlot, who picked up two Futures singles titles this year, was outshone by Nam, who took the first set with relative comfort and continued the good work to be well within range of upsetting Tatlot’s applecart.

However, the Korean’s hopes began to fade once Tatlot got down to the serious business of getting his teeth into the second set, managing to drive it to a tie-break which he won with great assurance.

With the momentum behind him, Tatlot went on to make short work of Nam in the decider to set up a quarter-final meeting with eighth-seeded Ouyang Bowen of China, who scored a 6-4, 6-2 win over an error-prone Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul of Thailand.

Where Nam failed to take a seeded player out, his fellow countryman Kim Young Seok succeeded in doing just that. The talented left-hander slammed the door shut on fifth-seeded Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia 6-1, 7-6.

After a first set blowout, Rungkat did well to rally around in the second to force a tie-break, but that was as far as he could go or was allowed to by Kim.

In a long-drawn affair, South Korean Kim Seong Kwan overturned a first set loss to down Ken Onoda of Japan 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, while Lim Yong Kyu beat his Korean compatriot Cho Soon Jae 6-3, 6-4.

In another all-Korean clash, sixth-seeded Song Min Kyu beat Kang Byung Kook 6-3, 6-2.

The last result from the men’s singles second round yesterday was a 6-1, 6-2 smashing of Japan’s Hiroki Horikiri by the third seed Karunuday Singh of India.