Associated Press

Memphis, February 16:

Top-seeded Andy Roddick, coming off a title in San Jose, defeating Hyung-Taik Lee 6-3, 6-4 in the opening round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships on Tuesday.

Roddick, who won here in 2002, took less than an hour to defeat Lee. The South Korean had pushed Roddick to three sets in San Jose. This time Roddick lost only five points during his service games and registered 11 aces.

Roddick, ranked third in the world, broke Lee in the fourth game of the first set and third game of the second and was in control the entire match.

Earlier, fourth-seeded Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic lost in straight sets to American Jan-Michael Gambill 6-0, 6-4.

Meanwhile, Vincent Spadea of the United States defeated Swede Thomas Enqvist 7-5, 6-2 and No 5 Belgian Xavier Malisse Malisse beat Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-3.

In the Cellular South Cup, the women’s side of the tournament, top-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia advanced with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Michaela Pastikova of the Czech Republic. Zvonareva, the winner of last year’s tournament, will face Severine Beltrame of France in the second round.

Also, third-seeded Meghann Shaughnessy defeated fellow American Laura Granville 6-3, 6-4. Zvonareva and Shaughnessy were the only survivors of the tournament’s top six seeds in the opening round.

ABN Amro:

ROTTERDAM: Fourth-seeded David Nalbandian was upset by Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 in the ABN Amro and complained that he couldn’t follow the ball on the red indoor court.

“It wasn’t because of the light, but possibly because of the colors,” Nalbandian said. Nalbandian, an Australian Open quarter-finalist, recovered from one service break in the first set to roll through the second. But Stepanek, the Milan Indoor finalist this month, ran an insurmountable 5-0 lead in the third and completed the first-round match with an ace.

Eighth-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain also lost, 6-4, 7-6 to Olivier Rochus of Belgium; No 3 Tim Henman beat Nicolas Kiefer of Germany 7-5, 6-4 for the fifth consecutive time.

Henman set up a second-round match against Michael Llodra of France, who defeated Dutch wild card Peter Wessels 6-7, 6-4, 6-2.

Diamond Games:

ANTWERP: Former world No 1 Kim Clijsters beat Jelena Kostanic of Croatia 6-2, 6-3 in the Diamond Games in her first match in four months. Clijsters said her problematic left wrist, which kept her off the WTA Tour for most of the past year, did not bother her during the opening match in defence of her hometown title.

Clijsters will meet fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova in the second round. Petrova opened her account with a routine 6-4, 6-1 defeat of Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-4, 6-1

Sixth seeded Nathalie Dechy of France and No 8 Karolina Sprem of Croatia were ousted by Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic 7-6, 6-4 and Anna Chakvetadze of Russia 7-5, 6-3 respectively.

In other matches, Camille Pin of France beat Marta Marrero of Spain 6-1, 6-2; Virginie Razzano of France beat Ana Ivanovic of Serbia-Montenegro 6-3, 2-6, 6-3; and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovakia beat Maria Elena Camerin of Italy 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.