Tue Jul 31 23:14:21 2007

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Davydenko, Robredo reach second round in Sopot

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Sopot, Poland (Sports Network) - Top-seeded and defending champion Nikolay Davydenko of Russia and second-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo were among Tuesday's first-round winners at the clay-court Orange Prokom Open.

Davydenko won his sixth straight match at this event by getting past Romanian Andrei Pavel 6-3, 6-4. The gritty Russian defeated German Florian Mayer in last year's finale here.

The veteran Pavel was a finalist in Umag this past Sunday.

Up next for the world No. 4 Davydenko will be Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello.

Robredo held off Polish wild card Lukasz Kubot 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 at SKT Sopot. Robredo, who captured this event back in 2001, will face surging Belgian Steve Darcis in the round of 16.

A pair of seeded Argentines bowed out on Day 2, as No. 3 Juan Ignacio Chela was whipped by his countryman Sergio Roitman 6-1, 6-2 and No. 5 Agustin Calleri was dismissed by pesky Austrian Stefan Koubek 0-6, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5. Roitman also bested Chela last week in Kitzbuhel.

A seventh-seeded Mayer avoided an upset by handling Argentine lucky-loser Juan Pablo Brzezicki 6-3, 6-3. The capable Mayer lost in each of the last two finals here.

Another upset occurred when Serbian qualifier Boris Pashanski stopped eighth- seeded Italian Potito Starace 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 3-1, as Starace retired in the third set. Starace was last week's runner-up in Kitzbuhel.

Igor Andreev completed a victory against Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti. The Russian was leading 6-0, 3-3 when play was stopped here because of rain on Monday. Andreev promptly won the second set, 6-4, on Tuesday.

Other first-round winners were the aforementioned Vassallo Arguello, Frenchmen Gilles Simon and qualifier Olivier Patience, Belgian Kristof Vliegen and the qualifier Darcis, who captured his first-ever ATP title in The Netherlands just two weeks ago. Darcis defeated Olympic gold medalist Nicolas Massu of Chile 6-7 (8-10), 7-6 (7-0), 6-4 on Tuesday.