TheSportsCampus

Three tournaments on the ATP Tour kicked off this Monday with the star attraction undoubtedly being the 1,150,000 ABM AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. Swede Robin Soderling, the no.3 seed, stole the limelight on day 1 with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 come from behind victory over Frenchman Florent Serra. Joining Soderling in the second round was 5th seed Spaniard Tommy Robredo and Italian journeyman Andreas Seppi.

Top seed Novak Djokovic opens his campaign tomorrow against Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine while 2nd seed Nikolay Davydenko has a tough first round encounter on Wednesday with last weekend's SA Tennis Open champion Feliciano Lopez.

Over at the SAP Open in San Jose, the only seed in action on Monday was Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic. The no.5 seed raced through the first set 6-1 but was pushed to the limit thereafter by American Wayne Odesnik. After dropping the second set in a tiebreak, Berdych finally prevailed 7-5 in the third.

Up next for the world no.23 is Finn Jarkko Nieminen. Nieminen beat German wildcard recipient Lars Poerschke 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Other winners in the top half of the draw on Monday were Argentine Leonardo Mayer and American Taylor Dent.

World no.7 Andy Roddick is the top seed at San Jose, and is expected to face a tough challenge from 2nd seed Fernando Verdasco and defending champion Radek Stepanek, who has made the final each of the last two seasons.

For those new to the SAP Open, it was first held way back in 1889 and has a proud heritage of champions including Pete Sampras, Rod Laver, Arthur Ashe, John McEnroe and Stefan Edberg. Incidentally, Edberg and Ashe are also former champions at the ABM AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Rotterdam!

Our final stop this week is South of the equator in the lovely surrounds of Costa do Sauipe in Brazil, where 2nd seed Albert Montanes booked himself a place in the second round with a 6-2. 7-6 win over Simon Greul.

Former world no.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero is the top seed at the Brasil Open and will be desperate to record his first win in 2010 after suffering first round exits at Auckland and Melbourne earlier this year. Ferrero is unlikely to have it easy when he takes on Eduardo Schwank in the first round.

Monday's Scores:

ABM AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Rotterdam

Singles - First Round
[3] [WC] R Soderling (SWE) d F Serra (FRA) 46 64 61
[5] T Robredo (ESP) d [WC] R Haase (NED) 76(4) 64
F Mayer (GER) d J Tipsarevic (SRB) 63 67(6) 76(6)
[Q] I Sijsling (NED) d M Zverev (GER) 67(2) 63 75
A Seppi (ITA) d [Q] S Bohli (ITA) 61 75

SAP Open, San Jose

Singles - First Round
[5] T Berdych (CZE) d W Odesnik (USA) 61 67(5) 75
D Sela (ISR) d S Giraldo (COL) 76(2) 76(4)
L Mayer (ARG) d E Gulbis (LAT) 75 64
J Nieminen (FIN) d [WC] L Poerschke (GER) 36 63 62
D Istomin (UZB) d [WC] R Harrison (USA) 62 75
T Dent (USA) d [Q] A Bogomolov Jr. (USA) 64 76(2)

Brasil Open, Costa do Sauipe

Singles - First Round
[2] A Montanes (ESP) d S Greul (GER) 62 76(2)
D Gimeno-Traver (ESP) d S Ventura (ESP) 76(7) 61

File Photograph Copyright: Italian Open (Constantini)