Italy’s Starace into second round at Croatia Open

Big-serving Lukas Rosol beat fifth-seeded Robin Haase of the Netherlands 6-4, 7-5 yesterday to advance to the second round of the Mercedes Cup.

Rosol stunned Rafael Nadal in the second round of Wimbledon earlier this month. Despite that win, the Czech actually dropped three places to No. 103 in the ATP rankings.

Rosol served 12 aces and won 91 percent of his first-serve points against Haase.

Tommy Haas, the eighth-seeded Germany, rallied to beat Igor Andreev of Russia 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 and countryman Cedrik-Marcel Stebe upset seventh-seeded Lubosz Kubot of Poland 6-2, 0-6, 6-3. Kubot served 10 double-faults.

Also moving into the second round were Bjorn Phau of Germany, Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil, Benoit Paire of France, Tobias Kamke of Germany, Pavol Cervenak of Slovakia and Jeremy Chardy of France.

Croatian wild card Mate Pavic upset sixth-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero in the first round of the Croatia Open yesterday, beating the former champion 6-2, 6-2. The 19-year-old Pavic saved all four break points he faced and converted four out of the six he earned.

Ferrero won Umag in 2010, defeating Potito Starace of Italy in the final for one of his 16 career singles titles.

Earlier yesterday, Starace beat Slovak qualifier Ivo Klec 6-3, 7-6 (6) to advance to the second round.

In another upset, American Wayne Odesnik beat eighth-seeded Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 6-7 (4), 6-2, 7-5.

Fabio Fognini of Italy, Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia and Marco Trungelliti of Argentina also advanced. Fognini, a semifinalist in 2008 and 2011, defeated Karol Beck from Slovakia 6-3, 6-1, Kavcic downed Croatia's Antonio Veic 6-2, 6-2 and Trungelliti beat Paolo Lorenzi of Italy 7-5, 6-4.

Fifth-seeded Michail Kukushkin of Kazhakhstan was upset in the first round of the Swedish Open yesterday, while No. 7 Fillipo Volandri of Italy easily advanced in straight sets.

Kukushkin lost 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to Spain's Daniel Gimeno-Traver, while Volandri beat Swedish wild card Michael Ryderstedt 6-4, 6-2.

Ryderstedt's exit means there are no more Swedes left in the tournament.

Frederico Gil of Portugal also advanced on the clay courts at Bastad Tennis Stadium by outlasting Turkey's Marsel Ilhan 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, while Joao Souza of Brazil beat Argentina's Horacio Zeballos 6-4, 6-2.

In other results, Czech player Ivo Minar ousted Spain's Roberto Bautista-Agut 7-5, 7-6 (4) and Kazhakhstan's Evgeny Korolev beat Thiago Alves of Brazil 6-0, 6-3.