Andy Roddick started slowly but picked up his game steadily to beat Philipp Petzschner of Germany 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships Tuesday. The fourth-seeded Roddick's game is clearly rusty. He's been dealing with a right hamstring and right ankle injury this season and came into the match with a 2-3 record and a No. 30 ranking. Earlier, top-seeded John Isner outlasted fellow American Jesse Levine 6-4, 7-5 (15) in their first-round match. In another first-round match, Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, ranked 43rd, beat second-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Jurgen Melzer was eliminated by American qualifier Tim Smyczek 6-4, 2-6, 7-5. Also during the day session, fifth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany defeated Olivier Rochus 6-1, 6-4. Latvian Ernests Gulbis, the 2010 Delray Beach champion, beat Alejandro Falla of Colombia, 6-4, 6-1. And Belgium's Xavier Malisse, a two-time Delray Beach champion, scored a 7-6 (3), 6-3 win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain. Ferrer advances In Mexico, two-time defending champion David Ferrer of Spain defeated local favorite Santiago Gonzalez 6-1, 6-2 to reach the second round of the Mexican Open Tuesday. Also Tuesday, No. 2 seed Nicolas Almagro beat fellow-Spaniard Pere Riba 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 and third-seeded Gilles Simon of France lost 6-7 (5), 3-6 to Carlos Berlocq of Argentina. Sixth-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina retired with heat exhaustion while losing 6-7 (2), 3-5 to Albert Ramos of Spain. Albert Montanes of Spain also had to retire in his match against No. 4 seed Kei Nishikori of Japan, who was winning 6-2, 4-1. Fernando Verdasco of Spain beat Filippo Volandri of Italy 6-0, 6-2. Swiss player Stanislas Wawrinka scored a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win against Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain. Six of Wawrinka's aces came in the decisive set. In the women's side, top-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy had eight aces in her 6-2, 7-6 (5) victory over Silvia Soler-Espinosa of Spain. Fellow Italian Flavia Pennetta ousted Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain 6-4, 6-2.
