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Djokovic flies through to round two in Rotterdam

After cruising through to win the first set 6-1, Marco Chiudinelli was put through his paces by Michael Llodra © Getty Images

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Top seed Novak Djokovic looked in impressive form against Sergiy Stakhovsky in the opening round of the ABN AMRO Indoor Tournament in Rotterdam.

The world No. 2 dominated the match, leading 6-2 4-1 before the Ukrainian retired. Djokovic struggled with his serve, hitting just 55 per cent of his first serves in, but nonetheless dropped just two points on his serve to take the opening set. He will now face Switzerland's Marco Chiudinelli who came through a tricky three-setter to beat Michael Llodra 6-1 6-7(5) 7-6(6).

Julien Benneteau pulled off a shock first-round victory to knock out seventh seed Ivan Ljubicic. The Frenchman beat the world No. 24 for the first time since 2004 to progress to the second round with a 6-3 6-3 win and will now face either compatriot Arnaud Clement or Michael Berrer.

Turkish qualifier Marsel Ihlan upset Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-1 6-4 and could face sixth seed Mikhail Youzhny in the second round, and to the delight of the Dutch fans, wildcard Thiemo de Bakker came from a break down in the first set to beat lucky loser Jan Hajek 7-6(5) 6-3 to set up a potential match with fourth seed Gael Monfils.

Meanwhile, the Brasil Open first round saw top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero progress at the expense of Edward Schwank of Argentina. Schwank took the Spaniard to a tie-break in the first set but eventually fell 7-6 6-3.

Local hope Thomaz Bellucci backed up his win in the Movistar Open last week to defeat wildcard Thiago Alves 6-2 7-5. The young Brazilian is hoping to become the first local to win here in six years while striving to make it two from two on the four-tournament Latin American swing.

Horacio Zeballos was the only seed to crash out, retiring hurt while on the verge of defeat, while big names Igor Andreev, Victor Hanescu and Pablo Cuevas all landed safely in the second round.

At the SAP Open in San Jose, fourth-seed Tommy Haas was the biggest name in action and he didn't disappoint, although he didn't have it all his own way as he saw off wildcard Devin Britton 6-4 7-6.

Philipp Kohlschreiber also progressed to the second round thanks to a 6-7 6-1 6-3 triumph over American Rajeev Ram, while Germany's Benjamin Becker also eliminated a local, beating Tim Smyczek 6-4 6-2 to set up a likely meeting with second-seed Fernando Verdasco.

Bjorn Phau completed the upset of the day, taking a 6-3 6-1 victory over French eighth-seed Jeremy Chardy.

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