STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Fourth seed Guillermo Canas of Argentina disposed of Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, 6-3, 6-2, on Monday in the first round of the $800,000 Stockholm Open indoor tennis event.
Initially a claycourt specialist, Canas is proving to be adept at all surfaces. The 23-year-old from Buenos Aires won his first career title in April at a claycourt event in Casablanca, Morocco, but also reached finals on grass and indoor hardcourts.
Canas was runner-up on grass at the Heineken Trophy in June and advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon. He was a finalist on the dirt at Stuttgart in July and appeared in the championship match at the CA Tennis Trophy in Vienna two weeks ago.
Kiefer has lost four of his last five matches since reaching the final of the Kremlin Cup three weeks ago. Before his run in Moscow, he had lost four straight matches. Kiefer had beaten Canas at the 2000 Australian Open in their only previous meeting.
In other action involving seeded players on Monday, No. 7 Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco edged Franco Squillari of Argentina, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
No. 8 Wayne Ferreira of South Africa got past Christophe Rochus of Belgium, 7-5, 6-2.
U.S. Open champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia resumes his challenge to Gustavo Kuerten's No. 1 ranking this week. The top seed had his 17-match winning streak stopped by Tommy Haas in the semifinals of the Tennis Masters Series event in Stuttgart on Saturday, but cut Kuerten's lead in the ATP Champions Race 2001 standings to 34 points.
Hewitt will play David Sanchez of Spain in the first round on Wednesday.
Sebastien Grosjean of France, who is trying to snag one of the remaining two berths for the season-ending Masters Cup, is seeded second. Grosjean, a semifinalist at the Australian and French Opens, is in ninth place in the Champions race.
Defending champion Thomas Johansson of Sweden is seeded third. Five of the last six championships have been won by Swedish players. Thomas Enqvist, the fifth seed, has taken home the title three times.
In other first-round matches, Magnus Gustafsson of Sweden beat Francisco Clavet of Spain, 6-4, 6-3, in the opening match of his final ATP tournamen. Gustafsson is retiring after 15 years on tour.
In an all-Swedish encounter, Andreas Vinciguerra outdueled Joachim Johansson, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4). Swedish wild-card entrant Robin Soderling downed Paraguay's Ramon Delgado, 6-3, 6-3.
