Djokovic into round two
On the Wire
Top seed Novak Djokovic eased into the second round of the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam after his first-round opponent was forced to retire.
The world number two from Serbia was leading 6-2 4-1 when unseeded Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine withdrew with an knee injury.
Next up for Djokovic is a second-round encounter with Switzerland's Marco Chiudinelli, who ousted 2008 champion Michael Llodra of France 6-1 6-7 (5/7) 7-6 (8/6).
Ivan Ljubicic was the headline casualty of today's first-round matches as he crashed to a 6-3 6-3 defeat at the hands of the unseeded Julien Benneteau of France.
The loss marked the third time in three years that Ljubicic, the seventh seed, had been eliminated at the first hurdle.
Turkish qualifier Marsel Ilhan and Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker also progressed today courtesy of straight-sets wins over Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Czech Jan Hajek respectively.
