Hamburg, Germany (Sports Network) - A pair of top-four seeds -- Juan Monaco
and Marin Cilic -- were among Tuesday's first-round winners at the $1.1
million German Tennis Championships.
The third-seeded Monaco got past German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-4, 3-6, 7-5,
while a fourth-seeded Cilic handled Italian Flavio Cipolla 6-3, 6-4 on the red
clay at Rothenbaum Tennis Arena.
The Argentine Monaco was a runner-up in Stuttgart here in Germany last week,
while Cilic is fresh off his title in Umag in his native Croatia.
In other action involving seeds on Day 2, German wild card Julian Reister
upended No. 5 Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-2, 6-3; No. 6 Philipp Kohlschreiber
overcame fellow German Bjorn Phau 4-6, 6-2, 6-3; No. 7 German Florian Mayer
got past Argentine qualifier Horacio Zeballos 7-6 (9-7), 7-5; and Czech Lukas
Rosol doused No. 8 Viktor Troicki of Serbia 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. Rosol shocked the
great Rafael Nadal in a second-round match on Centre Court at Wimbledon last
month.
Meanwhile, long-time German favorite Tommy Haas, a wild card this week,
drilled Slovak Martin Klizan 6-2, 6-1. Up next for Haas will be reigning
Hamburg champ Gilles Simon, who beat this week's top seed, Nicolas
Almagro, in last year's Hamburg finale. Almagro, who is currently on the court
in Hamburg, was the runner-up in Sweden last week.
Also on Tuesday, Albert Ramos topped fellow Spaniard Pablo Andujar 6-1, 6-4,
France's Jeremy Chardy handled Spaniard Albert Montanes 6-4, 6-2, and Italian
Fabio Fognini bested Turkish qualifier Marsel Ilhan 7-5, 6-2.
The 2012 Hamburg champion will collect $265,000.
The Sports Network