Berdych into Thailand Open second round

BANGKOK, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Tomas Berdych, the highest seed left in the tournament, posted a solid first-round victory Wednesday in the $550,000 Thailand Open tennis event.

Berdych dispatched local wild-card entrant Kittipong Wachiramanowong, 6-3, 6-0, and advanced to the tournament second round.

Berdych is seeded third but the tournament has lost much of its luster as world No. 2 Rafael Nadal withdrew Sunday with a knee problem, top-seeded and World No. 3 Novak Djokovic pulled out Tuesday with a back problem and Wednesday World No. 5 and second-seeded Andy Roddick withdrew with a foot problem.

Among those who did show up, fourth-seeded Tommy Haas stopped Vincent Spadea, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1; No. 6-seed Dmitry Tursunov beat Werner Eschauer, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1; and eighth-seeded Fernando Verdasco clobbered David Martin, 6-2, 6-1.

Yeu-Tzuoo Wang, who was to have met Roddick, instead went against Phillip King and won, 6-3, 6-3. Other winners Wednesday included Igor Kunitsyn, Simon Stadler and Nick Lindahl.

The Thailand Open champion will receive a check for $76,500.