LONDON: Andy Roddick began his bid for a record fifth title at Queen's Club Tuesday by defeating 2010 semifinalist Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (2), 6-7 (5), 6-4. The third-seeded American survived a barrage of 35 aces and claimed victory on his third match point after battling for two hours and 13 minutes. There was little to separate the two players, with Roddick holding the slightest of advantages in the opening set as he earned a break point in the sixth game and surrendered just six points on serve before dominating the tiebreaker. Roddick then fought off two break points to hold for 4-4 in the second set, but Lopez went on to level the match by edging the tiebreaker and then broke to lead 2-1 in the final set. But Roddick leveled at 3-3 and broke his opponent in the final game to seal the win. Defending champion Sam Querrey also advanced into the third round with a 7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-3 win over Germany's Rainer Schuettler, although the American failed to make the most of his many break points. Querrey next plays British wild card James Ward, who upset fourth-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 7-6 (3), 6-3. Juan Martin del Potro overcame an injury scare as he claimed a 6-4, 6-2 win over Uzbek Denis Istomin. Top-seeded Rafael Nadal will face Matthew Ebden in his opening match Wednesday after the Australian qualifier defeated India's Somdev Devvarman 7-5, 6-3. Second-seeded Andy Murray faces 2002 Wimbledon semifinalist Xavier Malisse, who defeated Matthias Bachinger 6-4, 6-4. Berdych rallies to win In Halle, second-seeded Tomas Berdych saved three match points before rallying to beat Ruben Bemelmans 5-7, 7-6 (8), 6-4 Tuesday to reach the second round of the Gerry Weber Open. The Czech faced the match points in the second-set tiebreaker before finishing off the Belgian in 2 hours, 16 minutes at Wimbledon warmup. Berdych is the highest seeded player remaining after No. 1 Roger Federer withdrew Monday. Third-seeded Gael Monfils of France eased past compatriot Florent Serra 6-4, 6-3 in just 56 minutes in his Gerry Weber debut. The 2009 winner, Tommy Haas of Germany, was eliminated after losing to Andreas Seppi of Italy, 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-3. Earlier, fifth-seeded Viktor Troicki and eighth-seeded Milos Raonic both breezed into the second round with easy victories. Troicki beat Mischa Zverev of Germany 6-2, 6-3. Troicki will next play Igor Andreev of Russia in the second round of the Wimbledon warmup tournament. Raonic dispatched Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-3, 6-1. The sixth-seeded Florian Mayer had a harder time beating German compatriot Dustin Brown 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-3. Petzschner also reached the second round Tuesday with a 6-2, 7-6 (5) win over another German, Dominik Meffert, and will next face Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain, who came back for a 1-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory over Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev. Rodionova upsets Kanepi In Birmingham, Russian qualifier Arina Rodionova upset top-seeded Kaia Kanepi 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of the Aegon Classic grass-court tournament Tuesday. Rodionova, who had had two matches in qualifying, advanced to the round of 16 against 2009 champion Magdalena Rybarikova after the 14th-seeded Slovakian beat Coco Vandeweghe of South Africa 6-2, 6-1. Kanepi said: “I didn't have any rhythm at all and she played very well.” Mirjana Lukic defeated the only other seeded player to lose, saving a match point to win 6-7 (2), 7-6 (4), 7-5 against No. 5 Roberta Vinci of Italy. Woerle advances In Copenhagen, Kathrin Woerle of Germany advanced to the second round of the Sony Ericsson Open Monday after upsetting second-seeded Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2. The 27-year-old Woerle will play Alona Bondarenko in the second round after the Ukrainian beat compatriot Olga Savchuk 6-4, 6-3 on the first day of the $220,000 WTA event. Serena to return Serena Williams is set to return to tennis at the Wimbledon warmup event in Eastbourne starting Saturday, after a year sidelined by illness and injury. The reigning Wimbledon champion was given a wildcard into the grasscourt event where she will join sister Venus who herself has been absent from the tour since January.
