VALENCIA: Andy Murray began his Valencia Open defense with a 6-3, 7-6 (1) win over Spain's Feliciano Lopez Tuesday. David Ferrer kept alive his hopes of reaching the ATP World Tour Finals in London later this month as the fourth seed rallied for a 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-3 win over fellow Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Murray and Robin Soderling have qualified, while Ferrer and Mikhail Youzhny, both playing in Valencia, have a good chance of claiming berths. Garcia-Lopez mixed up sharp groundstrokes and savvy net play to take the first set before Ferrer began to dictate play by taking advantage of his opponent's 68 unforced errors. Garcia-Lopez broke early to lead 2-0 in the second and third sets but both times succumbed to the eighth-ranked Ferrer. Earlier, Nicolas Almagro made an early exit after losing to fellow Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Juan Ignacio Chela, Potito Starace and Pablo Andujar were other first-round winners Tuesday. Djokovic wins Novak Djokovic made light work of his opening match at the Swiss Indoors with a 6-4, 6-2 win over big-hitting Latvian Ernests Gulbis. The second-seeded Serb defeated Roger Federer to win the title on his debut in Basel last year, and made it six wins out of six at the tournament Tuesday. Djokovic will face Daniel Brands or Jarkko Nieminen in the second round, while three-time champion Federer will meet Janko Tipsarevic after the Serb saw off Denis Istomin 6-2, 6-4. Also Tuesday, Richard Gasquet beat Yen-hsun Lu 6-3, 6-1, Santiago Giraldo of Colombia defeated Karol Beck 6-2, 6-1, and Viktor Troicki beat Michael Berrer 6-3, 6
