Tue Jun 10 14:49:48 2008

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Blake, Baghdatis, Haas post wins in Halle

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Halle, Germany (Sports Network) - Second-seeded American James Blake, 2007 runner-up Marcos Baghdatis and veteran German favorite Tommy Haas were among Tuesday's opening-round winners at the $1.12 million Gerry Weber Open, a grass-court Wimbledon tuneup.

Blake blitzed German qualifier Bjorn Phau 6-4, 6-1, while a fifth-seeded Baghdatis handled Czech qualifier Jan Hernych 6-4, 7-5 and an unseeded Haas toppled sixth-seeded Czech Radek Stepanek 6-7 (0-7), 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 at Gerry Weber Stadium. The Cypriot Baghdatis lost to Czech Tomas Berdych in last year's Halle finale.

Fourth-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny trounced compatriot Dmitry Tursunov 6-3, 6-1, while improving Frenchman Michael Llodra upended eighth-seeded Croat Ivan Ljubicic 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.

Veteran Frenchman Fabrice Santoro slipped past German Rainer Schuettler 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, while German Nicolas Kiefer overcame Dutchman Robin Haase 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. The former top-10 star Kiefer captured this event back in 1999.

Other Day-2 wins came for Czech qualifier Jan Vacek and Belgian Steve Darcis.

This week's top seed is French Open runner-up Roger Federer, who will open his stay here against German Michael Berrer on Wednesday. The reigning five- time Wimbledon champion Federer, who skipped this event last year, captured the Gerry Weber Open four straight years from 2003-2006.

In some second-round action on Day 3, Blake will face German Benjamin Becker, while a third-seeded and defending champion Berdych will encounter Swede Robin Soderling and Haas will tangle with fellow German Philipp Kohlschreiber.