DUSSELDORF, Germany, May 15 (UPI) -- Argentina breezed past Kazakhstan and Russia prevailed over Spain Sunday on the first day of the World Team Cup tennis event in Germany.
Defending champion Argentina was led by Juan Monaco, who notched a 6-4, 6-0 rout of Andrey Golubev to help the Argentineans complete a sweep of their three matches.
Juan Ignacio Chela dispatched Mikhail Kukushkin 6-1, 6-2 in the second singles match and a duo of Monaco and Maximo Gonzalez bested the Kazakh doubles squad of Golubev and Kukushkin 6-4, 6-3.
Russia, meanwhile, won its Blue Group contest against Spain by taking a pair of singles matches -- Mikhail Youzhny bested Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-4 and Igor Andreev got past Daniel Gimeno-Traver 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6).
Also Sunday, Philipp Kohlschreiber got Germany off to a good start against Serbia with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) win Janko Tipsarevic in the first of their three matches.
The second two will be played Monday.
