seeded Roger Federer needed less than an hour to get past Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-4, 5-2 Monday and reach the second round of his hometown tournament in Basel. Federer was serving for the match when his Ukrainian opponent fell and hurt his ankle. Dolgopolov received attention from two trainers but decided he was unable to see out the match, handing Federer the win after 48 minutes. Federer, who will meet Serb Janko Tipsarevic or Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the second round, won the tournament for three straight years before he was beaten by Novak Djokovic in last year's final. John Isner of the United States fought back from a set down to defeat Frenchman Michael Llodra 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Also Monday, qualifier Robin Haase from the Netherlands beat Swiss wild card Stephane Bohli 6-4, 6-3. Verdasco off to fine start Spain's Fernando Verdasco delighted the home crowd at the Valencia Open with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Michael Russell in the first round. Verdasco, who won the tournament in 2004 when it was played on clay, broke the American qualifier five times. The third-seeded Spaniard snapped a four-match losing streak and got his bid to qualify for the year-ending ATP World Tour Finals back on track in the process. Verdasco will play Giles Simon next after the Frenchman got past Ukrainian player Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3, 6-3. Stanislas Wawrinka came through a tough match with Andreas Seppi, winning 7-6 (2), 7-5 to join Verdasco in the second round, while Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia also progressed with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Arnaud Clement.
