Millman slides into Serbia Open last 16

John Millman has overcome an early hiccup to advance to the last 16 of the Serbia Open.

The Australian world No.43 dropped his serve early in his opening-round match to go behind but fought back to secure a 7-5 6-4 victory over local wildcard Danilo Petrovic.

Millman created 17 break points and converted four of them, two in each set, in an almost two-hour workout against 157th-ranked Petrovic.

The seventh-seeded Millman entered the clay-court tournament with a 3-8 record this season and is aiming to reach his first quarter-final of the year.

His next opponent will be Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas or Finn Emil Ruusuvuori in the round of 16 of the ATP 250 event.

In other first-round results, Marco Cecchinato, the 2018 Roland Garros semi-finalist, needed just 66 minutes to record a 6-1 6-4 win over Viktor Troicki while Nikola Milojevic was the only Serbian player to record taste success on Monday with an impressive 6-4 6-0 performance against Federico Coria of Argentina.