HAMBURG, Germany, May 14 (UPI) -- No. 2 Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil cruised to a straight-sets victory and was one of eight seeds to
advance to the second round of the Tennis Masters Hamburg Tuesday.
Kuerten defeated Germany's Nicolas Kiefer, 6-4, 7-5, in the $2.33 million French Open tuneup. The champion here in 2000, Kuerten and Marcelo Rios are the only active players to have won all three Tennis Masters Series claycourt events.
Sixth-seeded Russian Marat Safin, who lost to Kuerten in the 2000 final here, cruised past Italy's Davide Sanguinetti, 6-3, 6-4. Sanguinetti has been eliminated in the first round in all three appearances here.
No. 7 Tommy Haas of Germany improved to 22-10 this year with a 6-1, 6-1 rout over counrtyman and wild card Lars Burgsmuller. Haas lost to American Andre Agassi, 6-3, 6-3 on Sunday in the final at Rome.
Agassi was the ninth seed here, but withdrew Monday.
Eighth seed Thomas Johansson overcame Jonas Bjorkman, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-3 in a matchup of two of the top Swedes on the tour.
Tenth-seeded Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean remained perfect in three career matches against American Jan-Michael Gambil, 6-2, 6-2 and No. 11 Roger Federer of Switzerland breezed by Ecuador's Nicholas Lapentti, 6-1, 6-4.
In a matchup of American Davis Cup members, 13th-seeded Andy Roddick posted a 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 victory over Todd Martin. Roddick, playing here for the first time, leads the ATP tour with 32 wins this year.
No. 14 Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic got past American James Blake, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 and German Rainer Schuettler overcame Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.
Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic held a 4-0 lead when Morocco's Hicham Arazi retired due to a stiff neck.
David Sanchez of Spain breezed to a 6-2, 6-2 win over Fernando Meligeni of Brazil and Spaniard Felix Mantilla defeated Sweden's Thomas Enqvist, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).
In other first round matches: qualifier Mariano Zabaleta of Argentina beat Spain's Arnaud Clement, 6-4, 6-4; Spain's Tommy Robredo overcame Argentine Franco Squillari, 0-6, 6-2, 6-1; Romanian qualifier Adrian Voinea registered a 7-5, 7-5 win over
Hungarian Attila Savolt, 7-5, 7-5; and Andrei Pavel
of Romania eliminated Australian Wayne Arthurs, 6-4, 6-4.
]
