DOHA, Qatar, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Tournament top seeds Nikolay Davydenko and Ivan Ljubicic claimed first-round victories Tuesday in the Qatar Open tennis tournament.
Davydenko, the No. 1 seed from Russia, stopped Korean Lee Hyung-taik, 7-5, 6-4 and Ljubicic, who has been the runner-up in this event two of the last three years, ran over German Denis Gremelmayr, 6-1, 6-2.
Two of the lower seeded players lost Tuesday. Seventh-seeded Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean dropped a match to Belgian Olivier Rochus, 6-4, 6-4, and eighth-seeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka was a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 loser to Belarusian Max Mirnyi.
Other first-round winners Tuesday in Qatar were Swede Jonas Bjorkman, Italian Federico Luzzi, Swiss Marco Chiudinelli and Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui.
