Robredo, Fognini advance in Croatia

UMAG, Croatia, July 26 (UPI) -- Seeded players Tommy Robredo and Fabio Fognini claimed straight-set wins Tuesday in first-round play of the Croatia Open tennis tournament.

Robredo, seeded fifth, easily handled qualifier Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo in running his career record to 4-0 versus his Spanish countryman. Ramirez-Hildago didn't force a break-point situation on Robredo, who took 59 percent of the points in the match.

Fognini the No. 6 seed, lost his serve three times but managed to pull out a 6-4, 6-3 win over Rui Machado because he won more the half the points when receiving serve. He had six breaks in Machado's 10 service games.

Four matches Tuesday went more than two sets, including Potito Starace's 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-1 win over Thiemo de Bakker. Also, Robin Haase rallied for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 win over Simone Vagnozzi; Carlos Berlocq was a 6-4, 6-7 (7-9), 6-4 winner over Blaz Kavcic; and tournament defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero advanced when Maximo Gonzalez retired with the match tied 6-3, 3-6, 1-1.

Other first-round results saw Olivier Rochus top Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-4, 6-4; Filippo Volandri run past Mate Pavic 6-4, 6-0; and qualifier Gianluca Naso beat Mate Delic 6-4, 6-2.

Pavic and Delic were two of three unseeded Croatians in the draw. Their seeded countrymen -- No. 3 Ivan Ljubicic and No. 4 Marin Cilic -- had first-round byes but No. 8 Ivan Dodig and Abtibui Veic lost matches Monday.