Associated Press

Rotterdam, February 15:

Second-seeded Guillermo Coria and former world No 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero enjoyed straight-sets wins in the first round of the ABN Amro. Coria dispatched Dutch wild card Raemon Sluiter 6-2, 6-4, and will face Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand, who battled to beat Igor Andreev of Russia 7-6,1-6,7-5.

Ferrero, last year’s runner-up, also quickly beat Rainer Schuettler of Germany 6-4, 6-2 for a fourth straight time, and lined up a second-round match against either David Nalbandian of Argentina or Czech Radek Stepanek. Ferrero broke Schuettler in the seventh game, and the opening service game of the second set. Paradorn didn’t capitalise on four break points at 4-3 in the first set against Andreev, and blew a 5-0 lead in the tiebreaker. Andreev won five straight games to open the second set, and in the last set Paradorn broke Andreev for the match. Also, former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson downed Karol Beck of Slovakia 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, and Czech player Tomas Berdych beat Sweden’s Robin Soderling 7-5, 6-2.

Diamond Games

ANTWERP:

Seventh-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland beat Denisa Chladkova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 at the Diamond Games, where former No 1 Kim Clijsters will begin her comeback. Clijsters hopes to revel in the cheers of a 15,000-strong home crowd in only her second tournament since May. A left wrist injury and operation kept her off the tour until October, when she aggravated the wrist. Back to defend her Diamond Games title, Clijsters will open against Jelena Kostanic of Croatia. Also back was Venus Williams, who will attempt to become the first woman to win the title for the third time in a five-year period, and so keep a $1.3 million gem-studded racket. Williams won the first two Diamond Games but had to skip last year’s event because of a knee injury. Top seed for the tournament was Amelie Mauresmo, who lost the final of the Open Gaz de France on Sunday.

Cellular South Cup

MEMPHIS:

Eighth-seeded Max Mirnyi of Belarus saved three match points and beat Brian Baker 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 to advance to the second round of the Morgan Keegan Championships. Sixth-seeded Mardy Fish also had trouble in the first round, needing three sets to get past former doubles partner James Blake 6-3, 2-6, 7-6. Blake saved six match points in the two-hour match. In another first-round match, Kevin Kim won his seventh match of the season, beating 18-year-old American Scoville Jenkins, 6-4, 6-7, 7-6. In the Cellular South Cup, the WTA event held in conjunction with the men’s event, fifth-seeded Mashona Washington lost to Abigail Spears 6-3, 7-5. Seventh-seeded Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic advanced with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Lindsay Lee-Waters. Chanda Rubin, attempting a return after a season of leg problems, pulled out of the event before her opening match. She was replaced by Romanian Edina Gallovits, who lost 6-4, 6-3 to eighth-seeded Evgenia Linetskaya of Russia.