Pless and Karlovic win in San Jose

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2007

SAN JOSE, United States (AFP) — Denmark's Kristian Pless and Croatia's Ivo Karlovic put themselves in the paths of high-seeded stars with first-round triumphs at the 416,000-dollar ATP SAP Open.

Pless defeated Ukranian Sergiy Stakhovsky 7-5, 6-1 to book a second-round date with either third seed Andy Murray of Britain or American Kevin Kim.

Karlovic bounced Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) to set up a second-round match against either US second seed James Blake or Russian Igor Kunitsyn.

Top seed Andy Roddick, who led the US squad to a Davis Cup victory Sunday at the Czech Republic, will play Canada's Frank Dencevic in his opening match Tuesday in the hardcourt event.

Roddick won here in 2004 and 2005 but lost to Murray in last year's...