Mon Jan 14 02:05:35 2008

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Roddick advances, Murray out on opening day at Australian Open

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Melbourne, Australia (Sports Network) - Sixth-seeded American Andy Roddick advanced to the second round at the Australian Open in a three-set win, on a relatively quiet opening day in the men's bracket.

Roddick -- who has never lost in the first round of the grand slam, but never advanced past the semifinal round, beat Czech qualifier Lukas Dlouhy 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, from France, pulled off an upset of ninth-seeded Andy Murray in four sets -- 7-5, 6-4, 0-6, 7-6 (7-5). On the deciding point of the tiebreak, Murray hit a shot just wide left to end the match, and hit a ball into the stands in frustration.

Murray advanced to the fourth round last year, while Tsonga lost in the first round in his only previous Australian Open appearance.

Eleventh seed Tommy Robredo also advanced, though had to come back from being two sets down to German Mischa Zverev. Robredo, from Spain, won the third set in a tiebreak, then won the final two sets to take the match, 4-6, 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 7-5.

Robredo will face American Mardy Fish in the second round. Both players reached the quarterfinal round of last year's Australian Open. Fish beat Serbian Boris Pashanski in four sets on Monday.

Several other seeded players needed the full five sets to get by their opponents: Frenchman Gilles Simon, the 28th seed, and Finland's Jarkko Nieminen, seeded 24th. Simon beat American Bobby Reynolds, while Nieminen topped Canadian Frank Dancevic.

Other seeds to advance were No. 20 Ivo Karlovic from Croatia, who beat Britian's Jamie Baker in four sets; No. 31 Igor Andreev from Russia, who also needed four sets in downing Romania's Andrei Pavel; and Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu (No. 23), who beat Romania's Victor Hanescu in three sets.