Berdych reaches Barcelona Open third round

BARCELONA, Spain, April 23 (UPI) -- No. 3-seeded Tomas Berdych needed a third set Tuesday to reach the third round of the Barcelona Open tennis tournament.

Berdych escaped a challenge from Nikolay Davydenko 3-6, 7-5, 6-4. It was just the third time in 12 career meetings that Berdych managed to beat Davydenko.

Berdych advanced despite losing five games on serve, including two breaks by Davydenko in the third set. But Berdych took 55 percent of the points off Davydenko's serve in the final set, finishing with three breaks and the match.

Ernests Gulbis pulled an upset by eliminating 12-seeded Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-4 without losing serve.

Also in second-round matches, No. 6-seeded Kei Nishikori romped past Guillermo Olaso 6-1, 6-3, dropping only nine points in eight service games; eighth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber just got by Andrey Kuznetsov 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-2); and 10th-seeded Jeremy Chardy easily handled Paolo Lorenzi 6-2, 6-4.

The day's schedule wrapped with Thomaz Bellucci, the No. 16 seed, edging Pablo Carreno-Busta 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 7-5 in a second-round match that took 2 hours, 43 minutes.

First-round winners Tuesday were: Blaz Kavcic, Bernard Tomic, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Tommy Robredo, Albert Ramos and Carlos Berlocq .