Canas advances on Barcelona's clay court

BARCELONA, Spain, April 28 (UPI) -- Guillermo Canas, the 2007 tournament runner-up, collected an easy first-round victory Monday at the $1.29 million Open Sabadell Atlantico tournament in Spain.

Canas swept by Oscar Hernandez 6-1, 6-4 on the first day of the claycourt tournament. Canas, seeded ninth this year, blasted four aces past Hernandez in the first career meeting between the two.

No. 13th-seeded Fernando Verdasco, who dropped a 6-3, 6-4 match to Nicolas Lapentti, was the only seeded player to fall Monday.

No. 11-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela rallied for a 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-2 win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez; 14th-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka took out Jose Antonio Sanchez de Luna 6-3, 6-3; and 15th-seeded Dmitry Tursunov dumped Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4 in other matches involving seeded players.

Also Monday, Yuri Schukin beat Robby Ginepri 6-4, 6-2 and Agustin Calleri dismissed Thomas Johansson 6-1, 6-3. Other wins were recorded by Marc Lopez, Daniel Gimeno-Traver, Gabriel Trujillo-Soler, Denis Gremelmayr, Marcos Daniel, Mario Ancic, and Robin Haase.

World No. 2 Rafael Nadal is the top-seeded player for the tournament. He's seeking his third consecutive Sabadell Atlantico title.