NOTTINGHAM, England, June 17 (UPI) -- Jonas Bjorkman opened defense of his Samsung Open title Tuesday with a 6-2, 6-0 first-round rout of second seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia.
Bjorkman needed just 56 minutes to advance to a second-round matchup against Britain's Arvind Parmar. The unseeded Swede defeated Youzhny last week at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany.
Top seed Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco got past Germany's Alexander Waske, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.
Former champion Greg Rusedski of Britain ousted third seed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, 6-4, 6-4, in 67 minutes. This is only his third tournament of the year due to injuries.
Also, sixth seed Max Mirnyi of Belarus dispatched American Robby Ginepri, 6-3, 6-4, and No. 7 Taylor Dent of the United States topped his countryman Brian Vahaly, 6-3, 6-4.
