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A largely favourable day for the seeds witnessed top seed Novak Djokovic show the way in Rotterdam, while his number-sake Juan Carlos Ferrero led the charge of the seeds in Costa do Sauipe, Brazil. San Jose, USA too was friendly to the higher rankers as it witnessed just the solitary upset as a host of German players made their way through to the second round.

New world no.2 Novak Djokovic took less than an hour to book a place in the second round when his opponent Sergiy Stakhovsky retired citing a knee injury with the match over bar the shouting at 6-2, 4-1. The top seeded Serb is likely to find his next opponent Swiss no.3 Marco Chiudinelli more of a challenge. Chiudinelli was one of two victors today in a final set tiebreak, beating 2008 champion Frenchman Michael Llodra 6-1, 6-7(5), 7-6(6) on his sixth match point!

2007 champion and no. 6 seed Michael Youzhny was another to survive the perils of the tiebreak, coming back from a first set bread stick dished out by qualifier Andrey Golubev to win 1-6, 7-6(0), 7-6(5). 2007's losing finalist, 7th seed Ivan Ljubicic, was not quite as fortunate losing in straight sets to Julien Benneteau 6-3, 6-3.

Over in South America, the Brasil Open offered some clay court specialists an early opportunity to test their feet on the red stuff, as former world no.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero led a host of top ranked players into round 2. Top seed Ferrero posted his first win of 2010 downing Argentine Eduardo Schwank in two tight sets 7-6(4), 6-3.

Last week's Movistar Open champion Thomaz Belluci continued his fine start to the year with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Thiago Alves. Fourth seed Igor Andreev also searching for his first win this year, got it at the expense of Italian Potito Starace 6-2, 6-2. Fifth seed Victor Hanescu and sixth seed Pablo Cuevas also made their way into round 2, however the tournament did lose a seeded player today as no.7 seed Horacio Zeballos fell to Spaniard Macel Granollers.

Tuesday witnessed the German invasion of San Jose as four stars including 4th seed Tommy Haas and 6th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber booked their places in the second round. Haas overcame a stiff challenge from local las Devon Britton 6-4, 7-6(3) while Kohlschreiber beat another American Rajeev Ram in three sets 6-7(1), 6-1, 6-3. Joining their compatriots in round 2 were Bjorn Phau, who sprung a surprise over 8th seed Jeremy Chardy, and Benjamin Becker.

Big serving Amercian Sam Querrey (seeded 7th) also advanced with an easy 6-3, 6-2 win over Teimuraz Gabashvili.

Top seeds Andy Roddick and Fernando Verdasco open their campaigns tomorrow.

Select Tuesday Scores:

ABM AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Singles - First Round 
[1] N Djokovic (SRB) d S Stakhovsky (UKR) 62 41 retd.
[6] M Youzhny (RUS) d [Q] A Golubev (KAZ) 16 76(0) 76(5)
J Benneteau (FRA) d [7] I Ljubicic (CRO) 63 63
[Q] M Ilhan (TUR) d G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 61 64
M Chiudinelli (SUI) d M Llodra (FRA) 61 67(5) 76(6)
[WC] T de Bakker (NED) d [LL] J Hajek (CZE) 76(5) 63

SAP Open, San Jose, U.S.A.

Singles - First Round 
[4] T Haas (GER) d [WC] D Britton (USA) 64 76(3)
[6] P Kohlschreiber (GER) d R Ram (USA) 67(7) 61 63
[7] S Querrey (USA) d T Gabashvili (RUS) 63 62
B Phau (GER) d [8] J Chardy (FRA) 63 61
[Q] R Berankis (LTU) d R Ginepri (USA) 67(5) 62 63
B Becker (GER) d [Q] T Smyczek (USA) 64 62

Brasil Open, Costa do Sauipe, Brazil

Singles - First Round 
[1] J Ferrero (ESP) d E Schwank (ARG) 76(4) 63
[3] T Bellucci (BRA) d [WC] T Alves (BRA) 62 75
[4] I Andreev (RUS) d P Starace (ITA) 62 62
[5] V Hanescu (ROU) d J Souza (BRA) 76(5) 64 
[6] P Cuevas (URU) d [Q] F Volandri (ITA) 64 63
M Granollers (ESP) d [7] H Zeballos (ARG) 75 30 retd.

File Photograph Copyright: IvanAndreevich