Mon Jun 16 14:14:43 2008

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Gasquet, Ljubicic win Ordina openers

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's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands (Sports Network) - Second-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet and defending champion Ivan Ljubicic were among Monday's first-round winners at the grass-court Ordina Open, a final Wimbledon tuneup.

Gasquet snuck past Belgian Olivier Rochus 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), while a fourth- seeded Ljubicic held off Dutch crowd favorite Robin Haase 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) at Autotron Rosmalen. The Croatian Ljubicic topped Dutchman Peter Wessels in last year's finale here.

In other action involving seeds, No. 7 Argentine Guillermo Canas overcame German Mischa Zverev 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 and unseeded Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro topped No. 8 Frenchman Fabrice Santoro 6-3, 6-1. The 35-year-old Santoro will retire from the ATP at the end of this season.

Meanwhile, Frenchman Arnaud Clement bested German qualifier Benjamin Becker 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, Serbian qualifier Viktor Troicki handled German Denis Gremelmayr 6-3, 7-5 and Frenchman Marc Gicquel grounded Dutch lucky-loser Matwe Middelkoop 6-4, 6-1.

Additional Day-2 wins came for Italian qualifier Massimo Dell'Acqua, Spaniard Marcel Granollers and Indian qualifier Rohan Bopanna, who doused wild card and former French Open runner-up Martin Verkerk of The Netherlands 6-7 (8-10), 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.

On Tuesday, top-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer will take on Dell'Acqua and Gasquet will meet his countryman Gicquel in some second-round action.