Berdych, Gasquet win at Hamburg

HAMBURG, Germany, May 14 (UPI) -- No. 10 Tomas Berdych and 11th-seeded Richard Gasquet were straight-set winners in the first round of the Master Series Hamburg clay-court tennis tournament.

Berdych defeated Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 and Gasquet was a 6-1, 6-4 winner over Gaston Gaudio as one of the final tune-ups for the French Open got under way Monday.

Philipp Kohlschreiber posted the upset of the first day's matches, beating 14th-seeded Marcos Baghdatis 7-5, 6-3. Kohlschreiber is playing for the first time since winning the tournament in Munich two weeks ago.

Other matches involving seeded players Monday found No. 12 David Ferrer holding off Jonas Bjorkman 6-4, 3-6, 6-2; No. 15 Juan Carlos Ferrero handling Stanislas Wawrinka 6-1, 7-6 (7-5); and No. 16 Aussie Lleyton Hewitt dismissing Argentine Agustin Calleri 6-3, 6-4.

The top seeds for the Hamburg Masters are No. 1 Roger Federer and No. 2 Rafael Nadal, who has won a record 77 consecutive matches on clay courts.