Verdasco, who won the tournament in 2004 when it was played on clay, broke the American qualifier five times on the hard indoor court at the City of Arts and Sciences.
The third-seeded Spaniard snapped a four-match losing streak and got his bid to qualify for the year-ending ATP World Tour Finals back on track in the process.
Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad hereVerdasco will play Giles Simon next after the Frenchman got past Ukrainian player Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3, 6-3.
Stanislas Wawrinka came through a tough match with Andreas Seppi, winning 7-6 (2), 7-5 to join Verdasco in the second round, while Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia also progressed with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Arnaud Clement.
Clement hit 20 unforced errors in the first set alone to trail before Gabashvili broke early in the second. The sluggish Frenchman couldn't answer Gabashvili's backhand and was broken again in the seventh game.
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