Lee, rain control Tokyo tennis tournament

TOKYO, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Lee Hyung-taik claimed a first-round victory Monday at the $869,000 Japan Open Tennis Championships, which lost much of its first-day schedule to rain.

Lee had little trouble in getting past Satoshi Iwabuchi 6-1, 6-4 in just more than an hour. Lee forced Iwabuchi into 12 break-point situations and cashed in six of them.

Three other matches were completed Monday with Amer Delic stopping Go Soeda 6-4, 6-2, Takao Suzuki beating Yuichi Sugita 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) and Ivo Minar getting by Mischa Zverev 7-6 (11-9), 2-6, 6-2.

The other seven scheduled matches were postponed because of rain at the hard-court tournament.

Defending champion David Ferrer is the top seed for the tournament. Andy Roddick, coming off a win at the China Open in Beijing, is seeded second.

The tournament continues through Sunday when the champion will claim a check worth $135,000.