Andy Roddick surged through the first set in 18 minutes Wednesday and beat Argentina's Jose Acasuso 6-0, 7-6 (2) to reach the second round of the BA-CA Tennis Trophy.
The third-seeded American yielded just three points on his serve in the first set. In the second, Roddick missed three match points at 6-5 before winning the tiebreaker.
``I was surprised myself I got off to such a good start,'' Roddick said. ``In the second set, Jose played much better and took away the opportunities I had in the first.''
Top-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, the defending champion, defeated Florian Mayer of Germany 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals. He had 14 aces and faced just one break point despite more than a dozen errors from the baseline.
``I felt well on court and managed to keep Mayer under a lot of pressure all the time,'' Ljubicic said.
The sixth- and seventh-seeded players were eliminated _ Tommy Haas of Germany and Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain. Fifth-seeded Fernando Gonzalez reached the quarter-finals by beating Carlos Moya 6-3, 6-4 in a match between Spaniards.
Jurgen Melzer of Austria faced a match point but downed Ferrero 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3. At 5-4 in the second set, the Spaniard was one point from victory, but Melzer hit a forehand winner.
``At the start I had some problems with my timing due to the very slow court, but then I played fantastic,'' Melzer said. ``Surviving that match point was the key factor which turned the match around.''
Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia ousted Haas 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 in the second round. Hrbaty had 12 aces and dropped his service game only once.
In the first round, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who won the Open de Moselle on Sunday, had 16 aces in his 6-3, 6-4 victory over Tomas Zib of the Czech Republic. Richard Gasquet of France defeated qualifier Alejandro Falla of Colombia 7-6 (4), 6-3.
© The Canadian Press, 2007
