Viktor Troicki was dumped out of the Malaysian Open on Tuesday by unheralded Moldovan Radu Albot.

World number 24 Troicki had been seeded fifth in Kuala Lumpur and was the highest-ranked player in first-round action.

However, the Serb exited at the earliest opportunity as Albot, 83 places behind his opponent in the ATP rankings, triumphed 6-2 7-6 (7-5).

Despite conceding 11 aces and failing to register one himself, Albot carved out the only break points in the first set and took two of the three to come his way.

Both players then managed three breaks in the second set, Troicki passing up the opportunity to draw level in game 12 before Albot came from 3-0 down to win the tie-break.

Albot will now face Mikhail Kukushkin, who beat Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-2 6-2.

Radek Stepanek booked a second-round meeting against top seed David Ferrer with a straight-sets victory over Yuichi Sugita.

Sixth seed Jeremy Chardy needed three sets to see off Alexander Zverev 3-6 6-3 6-2, while Vasek Pospisil, seeded eighth, overcame Yasutaka Uchiyama 6-3 6-4.

Tuesday also saw wins for Tatsuma Ito, Marcos Baghdatis and Nikoloz Basilashvili - the latter having been a set and a game to the good when opponent Aleksandr Nedovyesov retired.