Fish, Baghdatis bounced; Blake, Granollers among winners
BASEL, Switzerland -- Fourth-seeded James Blake advanced to the second round of the Swiss Indoors on Wednesday, beating Germany's Nicolas Kiefer 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Fellow American Mardy Fish, the No. 8 seed, was upset by Feliciano Lopez of Spain 7-6 (9), 6-4 in a second-round match.
In the first round, Marcos Baghdatis was again hampered by injuries, losing to Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
Baghdatis needed treatment on his back during the match. The 23-year-old also missed matches with a wrist injury. He was ranked as high as No. 14 in April and went into the match against Granollers ranked 43rd but will drop even lower after the loss.
"Maybe I am going to be out of the [top] 100," Baghdatis said, adding that he expects to climb in the rankings soon again. "I did it before and I can do it again."
The 22-year-old Granollers won his only tour title at Houston in April, beating Blake in the final.
Also in the first round, Jarkko Nieminen of Finland defeated Argentina's Eduardo Schwank 6-2, 6-4 and Belgian qualifier Kristof Vliegen beat wild-card entry Philipp Petzschner of Germany 6-2, 6-3.
In other second-round matches, sixth-seeded Russian Igor Andreev needed more than 2½ hours to overcome Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6 (6), 6-7 (0), 7-5. Benjamin Becker beat fellow German Andreas Beck 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
