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Former Bruin Eric Taino went into his first-round match of the Mercedes-Benz Cup at UCLA as a huge underdog.

He had been trying just to stay on the pro tour in singles, playing in only 16 tournaments this year, most of them lesser-known tournaments on the Association of Tennis Professionals tour.

But even though he was matched up against the much more experienced Hyung-Taik Lee, Taino showed no signs of inexperience by the end of the match, beating Lee on Monday, 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2.

“I feel pretty comfortable physically playing with these guys,” Taino said. “I just need the experience.”

Lee had played 30 matches in ATP Champions tournaments while Taino had played only four; Taino went into the Mercedes-Benz Cup ranked No. 166 in the world (Lee was No. 53).

At the start, Taino’s inexperience showed. His serve was broken easily in the first two games that he served.

“I was just nervous at the beginning,” Taino said. “I was unsure of myself.”

But he regained form and started playing at the top of his game. Unfortunately for him, so was Lee.

Neither competitor broke serve in the second set, and Taino won the tiebreaker on Lee’s serve with only two points.

Taino quickly broke Lee’s serve twice at the beginning of the third set, leading 3-0 and making the match seemingly over.

Then, Lee went ahead 40-love on Taino’s serve, putting him back in the match.

“That wasn’t the way I wanted to start the next service game,” Taino said. “I just didn’t want to give him an easy game.”

He didn’t.

Taino scored three straight points to get back to deuce, while Lee nearly threw his racquet in disgust. Taino eventually took the game, the set and the match.

Taino moves on to play the winner of Frederic Niemeyer and No. 4 seed Gustavo Kuerten.

•••

Not very many big names were in action Monday, the first day of the week-long tournament.

Because of a charity event Monday night, only five of the 16 first-round singles matches were played, as were only two of the eight first-round doubles matches.

The remaining 11 singles matches will be played Tuesday, featuring all eight seeded players.

•••

One match with familiar names was played Monday, but it was a doubles match.

Last year’s No. 1 player in the world, Lleyton Hewitt, teamed up with Wimbledon finalist Mark Philippoussis to beat Wayne Ferreira and UCLA alumnus Justin Gimelstob 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

The third set was close and intense throughout; neither team could break a serve until the end of the set despite many chances to do so.

With the set tied at 5-5 and Philippoussis serving, Ferreira and Gimelstob scored the first three points, giving them three break point opportunities.

Two aces by “Scud,” as Philippoussis is nicknamed, and another one that was barely returned put the game back at deuce. After a double fault, Ferreira and Gimelstob had yet another break point possibility.

But another barely returned serve put the game back to deuce. Hewitt and Philippoussis would eventually win the game, making it 6-5.

It appeared that the third set would go into a tiebreaker, as Ferreira and Gimelstob took a 40-30 lead with Ferreira serving.

Ferreira hit a return into the net, and then Hewitt hit two cross-court winners to give suddenly Hewitt and Philippoussis the match.

•••

One other former Bruin was in action Monday.

In the first match of the Mercedes-Benz Cup, an 11 a.m. start, UCLA alumnus Kevin Kim lost to Jan Vacek 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Kim easily won the first set and was playing effectively on both his serve and Vacek’s.

In the second set, the opposite happened.

Both players played well in the third, with neither breaking the other’s serve.

Vacek finally broke Kim, making the score 5-4 and did not allow Kin a break point opportunity to ice the set and the match.

•••

Robert Yim, who will join the UCLA men’s tennis team as an incoming freshman in the fall, qualified for the Mercedes-Benz Cup and will play tomorrow against Ferreira, the No. 7 seed at the tournament.

The match will take place at the Grandstand court after the completion of the Nicolas Kiefer and Nicolas Thomann match, an 11 a.m. start.