Fifth-seeded Tommy Robredo from Spain cruised into the second round of the Croatia Open on Tuesday, beating Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic 6-3 6-2.
Robredo mostly kept to the baseline and needed only 71 minutes to outplay Hajek. The Czech, ranked 133, was nowhere close to the level he showed last week in Hamburg, where he lost to Roger Federer in the third round.
Robredo first broke for a 4-2 lead, but then lost serve before breaking again. In the second set, Hajek was 2-1 up but then lost five games in a row.
Sixth-seeded Martin Klizan of Slovenia also made it easily into the second round, beating Italy's Paolo Lorenzi 6-2 6-1.
Another Slovenian, qualifier Blaz Kavcic, rallied to upset seventh-seeded German Florian Mayer 6-7 (5-7) 6-0 7-5. Kavcic broke serve at 6-5 in the third set.
"This was a really tough match," said Kavcic. "First set was decided by a point or two and I knew I had to keep this level from the start of the second set, not to go down like many players tend to do here due to heavy conditions."
Kavcic will face Gael Monfils of France who defeated Croatian wildcard Mate Pavic 7-5 6-2. Monfils struggled at times in the first set, allowing Pavic a set point a 5-4.
Spain's Albert Montanes faced a tougher challenge in the opening set before defeating Serbia's Dusan Lajovic 7-6 (7-3) 6-1. Lajovic paid the price for wasting a set point in the first set.
Eighth-seeded Argentine Carlos Berlocq defeated Croat Josko Topic 6-0 6-1, while Serbia's Viktor Troicki beat Antonio Veic from Croatia 7-6 (8-6) 6-1.
In a late match, Horacio Zeballos of Argentina defeated Croatia's Borna Coric 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-0. The 16-year-old Croat had two consecutive break points for a 4-0 lead in the second set, but Zeballos recovered and won 12 out of next 13 games.
Earlier on Tuesday, Austria's Andreas Haider-Maurer defeated Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic 6-4 6-4, and Slovenia's Aljaz Bedene beat Dutchman Boy Westerhof 6-2 6-2.
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