Former world's no.1 and two-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt advanced to the second round of the BB&T Atlanta Open with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin on Tuesday.

Despite winning just 53 per cent of his first serves, the Aussie only allowed Roger-Vasselin to score only two break points in the match.

Hewitt, who came short against Nicolas Mahut in last week's Newport Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, will march into the second round of the tourney where a much better opponent is expected to give the Aussie a hard time on the court.

Also advancing into the next round are no.5 seed Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan (6-3, 7-5 win over Kevin King), no. 8 seed Evgeny Donskoy of Russia (6-3 6-4 win over Rajeev Ram), Denis Istomin (6-1, 6-3 win over Lukas Lacko) and Santiago Giraldo (7-5, 6-4 win over Jack Sock).

On the other hand, the first round battle between Mardy Fish and Michael Russell has to be moved to Wednesday because of rain. Fish, the sixth-seed in the tourney, took the opening set with a 6-4 lead, while Russell responded a 4-2 lead in the second set before rain poured on Tuesday, July 23.

The Atlanta Open is part of the U.S. Open Championship tournament series, which will culminate at the 2013 U.S. Open Championship in Queens, New York.