Blake rebounds at San Jose

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 13 (UPI) -- James Blake cruised to a 6-2, 6-4 win over Wayne Black of Zimbabwe Wednesday night in the opening round of the $380,000 Siebel Open indoor tennis event.

Elsewhere, Justin Gimelstob of the U.S., fired seven aces and toppled second seed Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand, 7-5, 6-2, in the biggest upset of the first round at the HP Pavilion.

No. 5 seed Todd Martin withdrew because of a family emergency, returning to Florida, where his infant son will undergo surgery. As a result, Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus advanced to the quarterfinals in a walkover.

Blake, 23, converted four of six break-point chances. He was playing his first match since dropping the decisive singles match in the first round of the Davis Cup to Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic in Zagreb.

"Winning makes you feel a lot better," Blake said. "What I learned from that weekend is to try to overcome the adverse conditions. Maybe I let the situation get too much of me. I was not thinking about playing my best tennis."

Gimelstob got past the opening round of an ATP event for the first time in three tries this year. The New Jersey native lost to Karol Kucera in Chennai and Younes El Aynaoui at the Australian Open.

"I just wanted to get on him early, not let him control the play," Gimelstob said. "My service was really high. I was on a rhythm and just played aggressively. This is a good win."

It was Gimelstob's first victory over a top-20 opponent since July 19, 2000, when he beat Mark Philippoussis in the round of 16 at Los Angeles.

Srichaphan, the world's 13th-ranked player, won his opening tournament of the year at Chennai, and reached the quarterfinals in Sydney, but Wednesday's loss followed a second-round exit at the Australian Open.

In the only other match involving a seeded player, No. 7 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia outlasted Jeff Morrison of the U.S., 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7-1).

Also on Wednesday, Mardy Fish, Vincent Spadea, and Zack Fleishman advanced to the second round, but Taylor Dent suffered a 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) loss at the hands of Hyung-Taik Lee of Korea.