UMAG, Croatia, July 27 (UPI) -- Seeded players Philipp Petzschner of Germany and Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine were ousted Tuesday in the first round of the Croatia Open.
Playing on the clay courts at ITC Stella Maris in Umag, Belgian Olivier Rochus upset Petzschner, seeded fifth, 6-2, 6-3. Italian Potito Starace eliminated Stakhovsky, seeded seventh, 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-0.
In other opening-round action, Andreas Seppi of Italy defeated Argentine Maximo Gonzalez 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 and qualifier Simone Bolelli of Italy beat Croatian wild card Antonio Veic 7-6 (7-3), 6-3. Other winners were Croatian wild card Ivan Dodig, Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas, Czech Jan Hajek and Frenchman Stephane Robert.
Defending champion Nikolay Davydenko, Jurgen Melzer and Ivan Ljubicic are the event's top seeds. Davydenko defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero, seeded fourth this year, in last year's title match.
