Unseeded Ivo Karlovic of Croatia used his crushing serve to oust German Benjamin Becker 7-5, 7-6 (3) in the first round of the US Clay Court Tennis Championships on Monday.
The tournament also lost its top seed when Andy Roddick withdrew because of a hamstring injury that he "tweaked" again in Davis Cup play last week.
Roddick has played in five of the past six finals in Houston and won three of them.
PHOTO: AP
The sixth-seeded Becker took a 2-0 lead in the tiebreaker on consecutive backhand errors before losing six straight points, including an ace from Karlovic.
Karlovic won the match three points later on forehand winner.
Karlovic won 73 percent of his first-serve points and had 16 aces.
"Today I was running good and serving well, so I'm pretty happy with the way I played," Karlovic said.
Becker, the 2006 ATP newcomer of the year who ended Andre Agassi's career at the US Open, won only 15 of the 55 first serves Karlovic got in.
The win was Karlovic's second in as many months over Becker. He had 27 aces when he beat the German in the semi-finals of SAP Open in San Jose, California in February. Karlovic lost to Andy Murray of Scotland in the final.
Eighth-seeded Juan Monaco, who won his first career title in Buenos Aires in February, put away Jan-Michael Gambill of the US 7-5, 6-4, Victor Hanescu of Romania won his first ATP main draw match in more than a year against Martin Verkerk of the Netherlands 6-4, 6-4, and Nicolas Devilder of France beat wild card Justin Gimelstob of the US 6-2, 6-3.
Defending champion Mardy Fish of the US was expected to play yesterday.
Roddick, ranked third in the world, first injured his left hamstring while lunging for a shot in a quarterfinal match in Florida late last month and was forced to retire.
He hurt it again early in his Davis Cup win over Fernando Verdasco of Spain on Friday.
Roddick did not have to play a second singles because the US clinched the win on Saturday.
Fifth-seeded Gilles Simon of France rallied to beat Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 at the Valencia Open on Monday.
Sergio Roitman of Argentina beat Czech qualifier Jan Hernych 7-6 (5), 6-4, while Stefan Koubek of Austria beat Spain's Oscar Hernandez 7-6 (5), 6-4 on a day where play was slowed by intermittent rain.
The ATP's opening clay court event continues through Sunday.
The Monte Carlo claycourt tennis tournament sued the ATP in federal court on Monday, arguing that dropping the event from the Masters Series would violate antitrust laws.
The German Tennis Federation filed a similar suit in the same court last month, trying to block the ATP from downgrading the Hamburg Masters.
The Masters Series is the second tier of men's tennis tournaments, below the four major championships.
The Monte Carlo tournament, first held in 1897, has been a part of the Masters Series since that level began in 2000. It also was part of the Masters Series' predecessor, the Super 9 category of events.
"By downgrading it, we would really be put in a position where we wouldn't matter anymore," Monte Carlo tournament director Zeljko Franulovic said in a telephone interview. "We are talking about survival here, not only being a little less important event. We would probably disappear if we were downgraded."
The Monte Carlo Masters (April 15-22) and Hamburg Masters (May 14-20) are played on clay in the weeks before the French Open, the only Grand Slam played on the surface. The lawsuits seek to prevent the ATP from taking away those tournaments' Masters Series status starting in 2009.
An ATP spokesman issued a statement via e-mail on Monday: "The ATP has not received a copy of any lawsuit from the Monte Carlo tournament and therefore can't make any comment until a complaint is received and the ATP has had a chance to review it."
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