Serra to play Berdych in France

MONTPELLIER, France, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Qualifier Florent Serra picked up a first-round win Tuesday and the right to face top-seeded Tomas Berdych in the Sud de France Open tennis tournament.

Serra ousted Tobias Kamke 6-3, 6-3 on the strength of three service breaks in each set in the tournament's final first-round match. Serra won more than half (26-of-49) of the points when receiving serve.

His second-round foe is Berdych. The top four seeds were given first-round byes.

All three of the seeded players who were on Tuesday's schedule won. Fifth-seeded Feliciano Lopez pounded out 19 aces in a 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) win over Igor Kunitsyn. Lopez won 71 percent of the points on serve.

No. 7-seeded Olivier Rochus defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-1, 6-4 and eighth-seeded Jarkko Nieminen slipped past Maxime Teixeira 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the other matches involving seeded players.

Also Tuesday, Nicolas Mahut beat Albert Ramos 6-3, 6-2; Edouard Roger-Vasselin got by Roberto Bautista-Agut 7-5, 6-2; Paul-Henri Mathieu advanced over Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-4, 6-4; Michael Russell took a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Adrian Mannarino; and Flavio Cipolla outlasted Marc Gicquel 1-6, 6-4, 7-5.