Second-seeded Alex Bogomolov Jr of Russia beat wild card Dino Marcan of Croatia 6-3, 6-1 to advance to the second round of the Zagreb Indoors on Tuesday.
Bogomolov reached the quarterfinals in Zagreb last year and was untroubled by Marcan, who was making his debut on the ATP Tour.
In November last year, Bogomolov decided to play for the country of his birth, Russia, rather than the US, where he has lived and trained since 1992.
Another Russian, third-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, also advanced to the second round, defeating 2008 champion Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
Youzhny wasted two match points at 5-4, allowing Stakhovsky to break and force a tiebreaker.
Sixth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis from Cyprus rallied to beat Lukas Rosol from Czech Republic 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Baghdatis wasted a 4-0 lead in the first set, and saved three break points at the start of the second.
Eighth-seeded Croat Ivo Karlovic, known for his hard serve, hit two aces less than his opponent Blaz Kavcic from Slovenia, but still won in two sets 7-6 (7/2), 6-3.
Poland’s Lukasz Kubot defeated Matteo Viola from Italy 6-2, 6-1, while two-time finalist Michael Berrer of Germany ousted Marco Chiudinelli from Switzerland 7-6 (7/3), 6-1. Berrer next faces top-seeded Croat Ivan Ljubicic. Jurgen Melzer from Austria easily advanced against Philipp Petzschner of Germany, 6-1, 6-3.
? OPEN SUD DE FRANCE
AP, MONTPELLIER, France
Feliciano Lopez beat Igor Kunitsyn of Russia 6-4, 7-6 (9/7) on Tuesday to reach the second round of the Open Sud de France.
The fifth-seeded Spaniard finished with 19 aces, earning the only break of the match in the third game of the opening set. He then jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second-set tiebreaker.
Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland also advanced.
The seventh-seeded Kohlschreiber broke serve twice in each set to defeat Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-1, 6-4. French qualifier Maxime Teixeira saved 11 break points, but still lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to the eighth-seeded Nieminen, who won the Sydney International last month.
Flavio Cipolla of Italy, American veteran Michael Russell and Frenchmen Paul-Henri Mathieu, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Nicolas Mahut and Florent Serra also moved into the second round.
Cipolla rallied past Marc Gicquel of France 1-6, 6-4, 7-5, Russell dismissed Adrian Mannarino of France 6-3, 7-5, and Mathieu beat Cedrik-Marcel Stebe of Germany 6-4, 6-4 to earn his first victory this year after missing the 2011 season because of a knee injury.
Roger-Vasselin downed Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain 7-5, 6-2, Serra ousted Tobias Kamke of Germany 6-3, 6-3, and Mahut was hardly troubled in his 6-3, 6-2 win over Albert Ramos of Spain.
? VINA DEL MAR
AP, VINA DEL MAR, Chile
Albert Montanes of Spain and Carlos Berlocq of Argentina, the only seeded players in action on Tuesday in the Vina Del Mar VTR Open, reached the second-round with few problems.
The fifth-seeded Berlocq defeated Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain, 7-5, 6-0, and No. 7 Montanes won over fellow Spaniard Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-2, 6-4.
The tournament is the first in a month-long stretch of clay-court events across Latin America.
The top four seeded players in the tournament have byes into the second round. Juan Monaco of Argentina is seeded No. 1 and countryman Juan Ignacio Chela is the second seed.
Brazilian player Thomaz Bellucci is No. 3 and Pablo Andujar of Spain is No. 4.
In other action on Tuesday, Frederico Gil of Portugal defeated Paolo Lorenzi of Italy, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, and Rogerio Dutra Silva of Brazil recovered from a poor start to defeat Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina, 0-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
Also, Jeremy Chardy of France beat countryman Eric Prodon 6-4, 6-3, and Argentine Horacio Zeballos defeated Adrian Unger of Romania 6-0, 7-5.
Local favorite Fernando Gonzalez of Chile won against Pere Riba of Spain, 6-4, 6-4, and Diego Junqueira of Argentina defeated Ricardo Mello of Brazil 6-4, 6-2.
Argentine Federico defeated Chilean Nicolas Massu 6-0, 6-3.
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