San Jose, February 15:

Defending champion Andy Murray advanced into the quarter-finals of the SAP Open, while Andy Roddick and James Blake booked second-round berths.

Third-seeded Murray beat Denmark’s Kristian Pless 6-0, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4. Top-seeded Roddick struggled against Canadian Frank Dancevic, but steadied the ship and cruised to a 7-5, 6-1 victory. Roddick is playing his first ATP tournament since his semi-final loss to Roger Federer at the Australian Open.

Second seed James Blake of the United States needed only 52 minutes to reach the second round, beating Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-2.

Open 13

MARSEILLE: The top-seeded trio of Nikolay Davydenko, Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic and defending champion Arnaud Clement were beaten in the first round of the Open 13 on Wednesday.

Top-seeded Davydenko fell 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to Robin Soderling of Sweden. No 2 Ljubicic was beaten by French qualifier Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 6-4. Third-seeded Ancic retired because of the flu when he was losing 4-0 to Andreas Seppi of Italy. Clement was ousted by David Ferrer of Spain 6-4, 6-4.

No 6 Richard Gasquet of France enjoyed a 6-1, 7-5 win over Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic, and No 8 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia registered a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Michael Llodra of France. Jarkko Nieminen of Finland edged past Jeremy Chardy of France 6-7(1), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6). Johansson beat George Bastl of Switzerland 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 while Bjorkman beat Italy’s Daniele Bracciali 6-3, 6-2.

Brasil Open

COSTA DO SAUIPE: Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain beat Sergio Roitman of Argentina 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the Brasil Open. Also Wednesday, Nicolas Almagro of Spain routed countryman Fernando Vicente 6-0, 6-1. Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain defeated Italy’s Stefano Galvani 7-6 (4), 6-3, while Hidalgo’s countryman Albert Montanes beat qualifier Pablo Andujar, also of Spain 6-2, 7-6 (6).