Robredo opens his China Open play with win

BEIJING, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Sixth-seeded Tommy Robredo was a straight-set winner Tuesday in first-round play at the $524,000 China Open tennis tournament in Beijing.

Robredo was the runner-up in last year's China Open and advanced in this year's bracket for the hard-court tournament with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

The win came in two sets but was tighter that than score indicated. Robredo forced Garcia-Lopez into 15 break-point situations, and won four of them, but still only took eight total points more than Garcia-Lopez in the match.

Juan Carlos Ferrero also advanced to the second round, taking out Alexandre Kudryavtsev 6-4, 6-3 in the only other men's first-round match Tuesday.

David Ferrer, Andy Roddick, Fernando Gonzalez and Richard Gasquet are the top seeds at the China Open and received first-round byes. Gonzalez defeated Robredo in last year's tournament final.