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Ljubicic comes through tough encounter

Ivan Ljubicic overcame a second set slump to beat French wild card Florent Serra in the first round of the Open 13 in Marseille on Monday.

The seventh seed from Croatia required two hours and nine minutes to see off world No 143 Serra 6-4 6-7(3) 6-3, and set up a second-round clash with either Paul-Henri Mathieu or Karol Beck.

“First and second set, I was serving really well,” Ljubicic told atptour.com.

“I never felt in trouble in terms of can I lose this; it was just after the second set because I felt like it would have been nice if I closed it in two. I was struggling in the third, the court is pretty quick. Of course, not playing a lot of matches makes things a little bit more difficult.

“It was great to get a win. This year was difficult for me. I had some tough losses, tough matches, so it’s really nice to be back to winning ways.”

Eighth seed Andreas Seppi was the biggest casualty on the opening day as he was beaten by fellow Italian Flavio Cipolla 6-4 7-6(4).

Cipolla will face Edouard Roger-Vasselin after the Frenchman beat Jarkko Nieminen 6-2 7-6(4).

Top four seeds Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Mardy Fish, Janko Tipsarevic and Juan Martin del Porto all have first-round byes.

Meanwhile in Memphis, Ivan Dodig upset eight seed Bernard Tomic 5-7 6-4 7-6 (8) in the first round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships.

Dodig saved two match points as he beat the 19-year-old Australian in two hours and 54 minutes.

The Croatian will meet either Denis Istomin, a runner-up at the San Jose Open last week, or Jurgen Melzer in the next round.

American Donald Young also needed three sets to advance, beating Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (4) 4-6 7-6 (6).

The 22-year-old Young will come up against the winner of a contest between top seed John Isner and Gilles Muller.

In the women’s draw, top seed Nadia Petrova fell at the first hurdle as she went down 6-4 6-2 against Italian qualifier Camila Giorgi.

Sixth seed Elena Baltacha of Great Britain was also sent packing on the opening day, losing 6-2 6-1 against Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands in 66 minutes.

Baltacha’s Fed Cup team-mate Heather Watson also made a first-round exit as she lost 6-2 6-3 to Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson.

Lucie Hradecka, seeded third, beat Georgian Anna Tatishvili 6-3 6-1 and No 4 Marian Erakovic overcame American Sloane Stephens 4-6 6-0 6-1.

Other winners included Vera Dushevina, who beat Madison Keys 6-2 7-5, Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko, a 2-6 7-6(5) 6-2 winner over Alexa Glatch and Varvara Lepchenko who beat Lauren Davis 7-5 6-3.