Nikolay Davydenko admitted he's trying to win the Dubai Championships with a sore left wrist after barely winning his first-round match against Florent Serra of France 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-1 Tuesday. Davydenko, the highest seed in action at No. 4, was a set and two break points down at 4-4 in the second. But he saved the pair as he won eight successive points to force a deciding set, which he steamrolled to win after 2 hours, 11 minutes on court. Fifth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga advanced when Michael Llodra retired from the all-French match after dropping the first set 7-6 (9). Also moving into the second round was sixth-seeded Marin Cilic, who defeated Arnaud Clement of France 6-2, 6-4. Russian Mikhail Youzhny, the seventh seed, also defeated Slovak Lukas Lacko 6-7 7-6 6-1. Indian qualifier Somdev Devvarman beat Switzerland's Marco Chiudinelli 6-4 7-5 to set up a meeting with Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in the next round, while Spaniard Tommy Robredo defeated France's Julien Benneteau 6-2 6-1. Other winners included Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, and Bjorn Phau and Michael Berrer of Germany. Li falls, Dementieva thru In Malaysia, Li Na was too distraught to speak publicly after being ousted from the inaugural Malaysian Open by Tatjana Malek of Germany 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 in the first round Tuesday. Second-seeded Li, who became China's first top-10 woman after reaching the Australian Open semifinals, broke Malek with all three chances she had, but lost her own serve six times in the two-hour tussle. Third-seeded Zheng Jie lost her Dubai opener but had more success Tuesday by beating Elena Bovina of Russia 6-4, 6-3. Top-seeded Elena Dementieva progressed comfortably by beating fellow Russian Ekaterina Bychkova 6-2, 6-1. Earlier, former world junior No. 1 Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand defeated Ksenia Pervak of Russia 6-1, 6-4. Others through the first round included sixth-seeded Sybille Bammer, Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan, Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia, Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa, and Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan. Haas bundled out In Florida, top-seeded Tommy Haas suffered an upset loss to Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia 7-6 (3), 7-5 in the first round of the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships Monday. This marks the third consecutive year Haas, who won the title in 2006, has lost in the first round of this tournament. The German also became the sixth top seed in the tournament's 18 year history to fall in the opening round. Haas, who became an American citizen in January but is still playing as a German, was trailing 5-3 in the opening set but fought back to a tiebreaker where he netted a backhand volley to lose the set. In the second set, the 104th-ranked Gabashvili went ahead 2-0, but lost his serve in the third set. Haas surrendered the match in the final game when smacked a backhand into the net. Wayne Odesnik and Evgeny Korolev, a Russian-turned-Kazakhstani, were first round winners. Despite falling and twisting his ankle at 3-1 in the first set, Odesnik cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over fellow American Rajeev Ram on Monday. Korolev, who reached the final as a qualifier in Delray Beach last year, scored a 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 victory over Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador. Szavay wins In Mexico, second-seeded Agnes Szavay of Hungary rallied to beat Sandra Zahlavova of the Czech Republic 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the first round of the Mexican Open Monday. On the men's side, Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci defeated Oscar Hernandez of Spain 6-3, 6
