MEMPHIS, US — Cypriot wildcard Marcos Baghdatis, Croatian Ivo Karlovic and Germany's Benjamin Becker eased to straight-sets victories Tuesday to book second-round matches with seeded players at the $647,000 ATP US Indoor Championship. Becker saved all three break points that he faced in beating Slovakia's Lukas Lacko 6-3, 6-2 and advanced to a second-round clash with defending champion and top seed Kei Nishikori of Japan. Baghdatis beat US qualifier Rajeev Ram 6-3, 6-4 to book a date with Australian third seed Lleyton Hewitt. Karlovic blasted 14 aces to beat Aussie Matthew Ebden 7-5, 6-4, and advance to a second-round meeting with Spanish second seed Feliciano Lopez. Kazak eighth seed Mikhail Kukushkin battled past Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili 7-6 (11-9), 7-5. Kukushkin could face Taiwan fourth seed Lu Yen-hsun in the quarterfinals. US sixth seed Sam Querrey squandered 18 aces and a match point in the decisive tie-breaker in losing to Russian Alex Bogomolov, whose 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) triumph gave him to a second-round match with American Ryan Harrison. Ivanovic advances in Qatar In Doha, ninth-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia advanced to the second round of the Qatar Open Tuesday after Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova retired from their match with a right knee injury. Ivanovic was leading 7-5, 1-0 when Hantuchova withdrew after falling 0-40 behind in the second game. Wildcard entrant Alisa Kleybanova of Russia also advanced after her opponent retired. At 5-5 in the first set, 10th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovak Republic retired from the match with a gastrointestinal illness. Karin Knapp was told she had to be in Doha to play a first round match Tuesday. Knapp started her journey early Monday morning and after going from Cleveland to Washington DC, and then to Dubai, she landed in Doha Tuesday in time to play her afternoon match. Knapp played impressive tennis to defeat Caroline Garcia of France 6-4, 6-1 straight off the plane. Four players who chose to skip playing the Fed Cup tie between the US and Italy in order to get to Doha early — Sloane Stephens, Francesca Schiavone, Roberta Vinci and Flavia Pennetta — have all lost their first round matches. — Agencies
