Reilly Opelka squandered three match points to join fellow American seed Taylor Fritz in suffering a first-round exit at the inaugural Adelaide International.

Eighth seed Opelka took the first set against Pablo Cuevas and passed up three opportunities in a second-set tie-break before succumbing to a 5-7 7-6 (11-9) 7-6 (7-2) defeat.

Fritz, seeded fifth, slipped to a 6-4 7-6 (7-4) loss to Alexander Bublik, who now owns a 2-0 lead in their head-to-head record having also triumphed in Chengdu last year.

In the day's other match, Laslo Djere needed three sets to defeat Alexei Popyrin.