Top-Seeded Verdasco Advances At SAP Open
SAN JOSE (AP) -- Top-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain needed only an hour to advance at the SAP Open on Wednesday night, beating American Rajeev Ram 6-3, 6-2 in a first-round match.
The defending champion in the event, Verdasco recorded eight aces and won 88 percent of his first service points.
Verdasco meets Croatia's Ivo Karlovic in the second round.
Karlovic topped American Ryan Sweeting 6-4, 6-4.
In second-round matches, Lithuanian Richard Berankis beat American Donald Young 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 and Canada's Milos Roanic beat American James Blake 6-2, 7-6 (4).
The 74th-ranked Berankis, who beat the eighth-seeded Benjamin Becker in the first round, meets Roanic in the quarterfinals.
In another first-round match, American Robert Kendrick downed Russian Igor Kunitsyn 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 and will meet the winner of the late match between No. 2 seed Gael Monfils and Bradley Klahn.
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