Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico, 1 August 2017 | Reuters/tennis.com.au

Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis has outlasted tournament No.8 seed Frances Tiafoe to advance to the second round of the Los Cabos Open in Mexico.

The 21-year-old from Adelaide won in straight sets, but had to dig deep before overcoming the American in two tiebreakers with the second going to 10 points.

Kokkinakis’ 7-6(3) 7-6(8) win – during which he saved five set points in the second set – sees him take on the winner of the first-round match between Yasutaka Uchiyama and Peter Polansky.

Only a few minutes before Kokkinakis sealed victory, compatriot Matthew Ebden scored a fine win over American Dennis Novikov.

Ebden lost the first set but then bounced back to win 1-6 6-3 6-3 to set up an encounter with No.4 seed Feliciano Lopez, who received a bye into the next round.

Ebden, a qualifier, has now won nine of his past 10 matches after two weeks ago reaching the ATP final in Newport – also as a qualifier.

Later on Monday, a third Aussie, Akira Santillan, joined his countryman in the last 16 in Mexico.

Santillan, who like Ebden came through two rounds of qualifying, thrashed Russia’s Konstantin Kravchuk 6-0 6-1 in just 36 minutes.

Czech Tomas Berdych (No.1) and American Sam Querrey are the tournament’s top two seeds.

Santillan next faces Berdych.