Mon Feb 25 14:51:25 2008

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Tipsarevic takes opener; Santoro retires in Zagreb

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Zagreb, Croatia (Sports Network) - Eighth-seeded Serbian Janko Tipsarevic was among Monday's winners, while fourth-seeded Frenchman Fabrice Santoro retired from his opening-round match at the PBZ Zagreb Indoors tennis event.

Tipsarevic trounced German Mischa Zverev 6-3, 6-1 at Dom Sportova, while Santoro quit after 48 minutes against Olivier Rochus, giving the Belgian a 6-3, 2-0 decision.

In other first-round action, Italian Simone Bolelli bounced German Rainer Schuettler 6-3, 6-2 and Austrian Stefan Koubek staved off two match points in order to overcome Croatian wild card Franko Skugor 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-0.

This week's top seed in heavy Croatian favorite Ivan Ljubicic, who was last year's runner-up here to Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis and captured the inaugural edition of this tournament in 2006. Baghdatis is not defending his title here this year.

The 2008 Zagreb champion will claim $59,100.