Mon May 19 16:46:03 2008

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Tsonga, Monfils win Casablanca openers

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Casablanca, Morocco (Sports Network) - Top-seeded Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils were a pair of first-round winners Monday at the $575,000 Grand Prix Hassan II tennis event.

The Australian Open runner-up Tsonga got past Spaniard Albert Montanes 6-4, 7-6 (12-10), while Monfils came from behind to best Spaniard Guillermo Garcia- Lopez 6-7 (8-10), 7-5, 6-0 at Complexe Sportif al Amal. Montanes was last year's Casablanca runner-up to Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu.

All of this week's eight seeds saw action on Monday, as Tsonga and Monfils were joined in the win column by third-seeded Argentine Agustin Calleri, fourth-seeded Frenchman Marc Gicquel and fifth-seeded Frenchman Julien Benneteau. Sixth-seeded Aussie Chris Guccione, seventh-seeded Frenchman Florent Serra and eighth-seeded Romanian Victor Hanescu all went by way of the upset on Day 2.

Calleri came back to beat Frenchman Thierry Ascione 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, while Gicquel grounded Spanish qualifier Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-3, 6-0 and Benneteau overcame German Florian Mayer 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Meanwhile, German Rainer Schuettler knocked out Guccione 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, qualifier Gilles Simon toppled his French countryman Serra 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 and Moroccan veteran Younes El Aynaoui erased Hanescu 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3. The wild card El Aynaoui captured this tournament back in 2002.

Additional Day-2 wins came for Algerian wild card Lamine Ouahab, Spaniard Santiago Ventura, Argentine Guillermo Coria and Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas. Ventura titled here in 2004. The little-known Ouahab will face Tsonga in the second round.

Casablanca serves as a final tuneup for the French Open, which will get underway Sunday in Paris.