DOHA — Fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych lost his first match of the season Monday, falling to Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4) at the Qatar Open. Karlovic served 25 aces and had 49 winnersh, while Berdych had eight aces and 28 winners. Neither player managed to break serve. Berdych was the only top 10 player who did not win an ATP tour title in 2013.Karlovic, a former top 15 player, finished the 2013 season ranked No. 77. He missed nearly two months in the spring. Elsewhere, Gael Monfils of France beat Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 7-6 (1), 6-2; and Lukasz Kubot of Poland beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 6-4, 6-3. Pospisil, Vesely win in India In Chennai, Rising stars Vasek Pospisil of Canada and Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic began the new tennis season with first-round victories in the ATP Chennai Open Monday. Fifth-seeded Pospisil, who jumped from No. 140 to 32 in the rankings by the end of the 2013 season, brushed past British wildcard Kyle Edmund 6-3, 7-5 at the Nungambakkam Tennis Stadium. Pospisil's next opponent will be Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan, who ruined American Tim Smyczek's 26th birthday with a 6-4, 6-2 victory on an outside court. Vesely, who at 20 is the youngest player in the world's top 100, survived a scare from Indian wildcard Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan before advancing to the next round. The 84th-ranked Vesely bounced back after trailing 1-4 in the first set to beat the Indian 7-5, 6-2 on the center court. Swiss world No. 8 Stanislas Wawrinka leads the field in the $450,000 tournament. Wawrinka will have world No. 15 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, No. 16 Fabio Fognini of Italy and the 26th-ranked Benoit Paire of France as his strongest challengers. Also in the fray are the Spanish duo of Marcel Granollers and Roberto Bautista-Agut, and Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Defending champion Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia withdrew from a seventh appearance in Chennai after failing to recover from a heel injury that troubled him all through the year. Meanwhile, Dudi Sela of Israel defeated Slovak Lukas Lacko 6-4, 6-2 to set up a second round clash against Youzhny. Errani, Zakopalova advance In Beijing, second-seeded Sara Errani and third-seeded Klara Zakopalova advanced to the second round of the Shenzhen Open Monday. Errani beat Chinese wildcard Zheng Saisai 6-0, 3-6, 7-6 (3), and Zakopalova defeated 17-year-old Donna Vekic of Croatia 6-3, 7-5. — Agencies
