■ FIVE CROATS ADVANCE
AP, ZAGREB
Top-seeded Ivan Ljubicic led five Croats into the second round of the PBZ Zagreb Indoors with only countryman and second-seeded Ivo Karlovic losing his opener on Tuesday.
Ljubicic, the 2006 champion and last year's runner-up, hit 13 aces and broke serve only once in beating Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-3, 7-6 (7).
Karlovic was upset by 209th-ranked Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 but it was the only blemish on a banner day for the home players.
Fifth-seeded Marin Cilic beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-2, 6-2, former top-10 player Mario Ancic ousted sixth-seeded Nicolas Mahut 7-6 (3), 7-6 (6) and two wild cards were winners, Lovro Zovko against Marc Gicquel of France 6-3, 7-5, and Roko Karanusic over Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia 6-7 (9), 6-4, 6-4.
Ljubicic will play Zovko in the second round.
Also, third-seeded Gilles Simon of France beat Pavol Cervenak of Slovakia 7-6 (2), 6-1.
Other winners included Rik de Voest of South Africa, an upset winner over seventh-seeded Andreas Seppi 6-4, 7-6 (3), Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia, Viktor Troicki of Serbia, Robin Haase of the Netherlands and Denis Gremelmayr of Germany.
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