Associated Press

Indianapolis, July 20:

Top-seeded Andy Roddick had to work extra hard to keep alive his bid for a third consecutive RCA Championships, playing three tiebreakers to defeat Russian Dmitry Tursunov in a second-round match. Roddick, 11-0 in three trips to the tournament closed the match with his 17th ace for a 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 triumph.

Joining Roddick in the third round was Robby Ginepri with an upset of eighth-seeded fellow American Vince Spadea 6-4, 6-3.

Seventh-seeded Greg Rusedski of Britain also played three tiebreakers to eliminate Weslie Moodie of South Africa 6-7, 7-6, 7-6. Earlier, American veteran Jan-Michael Gambill defeated countryman Donald Young in straight sets in the opening round. Jonas Bjorkman of Swaden advanced to the second round beating Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic 7-6, 6-1.

Cincinnati Open

Mason: Top-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland and second-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva won in straight sets to lead five seeded players into the second round of the Cincinnati Women’s Open. Schnyder easily advanced with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki. Zvonareva beat Meghann Shaughnessy 6-3, 6-3.

Fourth-seeded Slovak Daniela Hantuchova eliminated Lilia Osterloh 6-1, 6-2; sixth-seeded Ai Sugiyama of Japan beat Lindsay Lee-Waters 7-5, 6-2; Marion Bartoli of France lost to American Bethanie Mattek 1-6, 6-4, 7-6; Anna-Lena Gronefeld was beaten by Indian Sania Mirza 6-4, 6-3; and Sybille Bammer upset stopped the Czech Republic’s Iveta Benesova 7-5, 6-3 to advance in the $170,000 Tier III tournament.

Palermo Int’l

PALERMO: Top-seeded Silvia Farina Elia retired with a right shoulder injury during her first round match at the Palermo International. The Italian was trailing 7-6, 2-0 to Bulgaria’s Tszvetana Piro-nkova when she had to quit. Second-seeded Flavia Pennetta beat countrywoman Antonella Serra Zanetti 6-2, 7-5 and defending champion Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Czech Denisa Chladkova.

Israel’s Anna Smashnova cruised past Spain’s Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-3, 6-2

and Mariana Diaz-Oliva of Argentina, the 2002 Palermo champion, upset Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-3, 6-3.