Agence France Presse

San Jose, February 8:

US teenager Donald Young’s first appearance in an ATP tennis tournament proved brief as the 15-year-old phenom fell in straight sets to Robby Ginepri in the first round of the $380,000 SAP Open.

Young took over the top spot in the world junior rankings after winning the boys’s singles title at the Australian Open in January. At 15 years, six months and seven days, Young became the youngest boy to win a Junior Grand Slam title.

But Ginepri dispatched the wild-card entrant 6-2, 6-2 in the marquee match of the night. Young was within 2-1 in the first set before losing 10 of the next 13 games. Even so, he was happy with his debut.

In the curtain raiser, South Korean Hyung-Taik Lee defeated American Jan-Michael Gambill 6-3, 7-6.

Earlier in the day, American Kevin Kim defeated Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-3, Canadian qualifier Frank Dancevic downed American Jeff Morrison 4-6, 7-6, 6-0, and Denmark’s Kenneth Carlsen beat Irakli Labadze of the Republic of Georgia 6-7, 6-2, 6-3.

Top seed Andy Roddick launches his defence of the title on Wednesday against qualifier Paul Goldstein. Second-seeded Andre Agassi opens his campaign against wild card Bobby Reynolds.

Germany’s Tommy Haas is the third seed, followed by American Vincent Spadea, Czech Jiri Novak, Fish, Jurgen Melzer of Austria and Max Mirnyi of Belarus.

ATP Buenos Aires:

BUENOS AIRES: Third-seeded Guillermo Canas of Argentina advanced to the second round of the $380,000 ATP Buenos Aires beating Alex Corretja of Spain 6-3, 6-1.

Canas was one of four Argentines to move into the next round. Eighth-seeded Mariano Zabaleta, Jose Acasuso and Juan Monaco also won.

Zabaleta ousted Alex Calatrava of Spain 6-3, 6-2; Acasuso defeated Paul Henri Mathieu of France 6-3, 6-2; and Monaco beat Albert Costa of Spain 7-5, 6-4.

In other matches, Flavio Saretta of Brazil topped Albert Montanes of Spain 6-3, 0-6, 6-2, and Felix Mantilla of Spain defeated countryman Oscar Hernandez 6-4, 7-6.

The competition features two players ranked in the top 10 — No 6 Carlos Moya of Spain and No 8 Gaston Gaudio of Argentina.

Gaz de France:

PARIS: Dinara Safina of Russia defeated sixth-seeded Karolina Sprem of Croatia 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of the $585,000 Open Gaz de France.

Safina, the sister of two-time Grand Slam winner Marat Safin, next plays top-seeded Serena Williams of the United States, the reigning Australian Open champion. Also, seventh-seeded Silvia Farina Elia of Italy thumped Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic 6-0, 6-0. She next faces third-seeded Maria Sharapova, the Wimbledon champion.

Later, Mary Pierce of France defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-1, 6-2, and Stephanie Cohen-Aloro of France topped Maria Elena Camerin of Italy 7-6, 6-1.

Open 13:

MARSEILLE: Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands and Mario Ancic of Croatia each recorded upsets in the first round of the $653,000 Open 13.

Schalken topped fourth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, and Ancic beat fifth-seeded Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia 6-3, 7-5. Sixth-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain survived, however, beating countryman Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 6-3.