J.J. Wolf, Marcos Giron fly the United States flag in the Houston Open first round

America's J.J. Wolf was the top seed in action on Tuesday at the Houston Open and he had no issue in his 6-3 6-2 first-round victory over Jordan Thompson.

Wolf, the fifth seed at the United States' only clay court event on the ATP Tour calendar, needed just 75 minutes to send the Australian home early on the back of a rock-solid serving performance.

Thompson was not able to produce a single break point opportunity in the match, and Wolf left an exclamation point on the contest by winning the final five games to run away with the win.

Meanwhile, seventh seed Marcos Giron gave the American crowd another win to cheer for in his 6-0 6-2 demolition of Ecuador's Emilio Gomez.

The chance for the double-bagel was there for Giron after winning the first 11 games to race out to a 6-0 5-0 lead, but he blew four match points as Gomez showed no quit and secured a break to at least take the match over the 60-minute mark.

Eighth seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry prevailed 6-3 6-4 in his all-Argentine clash against Juan Manuel Cerundolo, taking a 3-2 lead in their overall head-to-head meetings after rising 21-year-old Cerundolo took the past two.

Garin wasn't messing around today @Garin_Cris cruises past Dellien 6-3 6-0.@mensclaycourt | #USClay pic.twitter.com/TfCmqvGWsJ
— ATP Tour (@atptour) April 5, 2023

German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann booked a second-round matchup against second seed Tommy Paul after a hard-fought 6-4 3-6 6-2 triumph over Japan's Yosuke Watanuki, while Chile's Cristian Garin had little resistance in his 6-3 6-0 victory in a South American showdown against Bolivia's Hugo Dellien.

In the late window, Jack Sock failed to complete the United States clean sweep for the day as he fell 6-2 6-4 to the Czech Republic's Tomas Machac.