Umag, Croatia,July 24: 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 from Slovenia also made it easily to the second round, beating Italy's Paolo Lorenzi 6-2, 6-1.
Another Spaniard, Albert Montanes, faced a tougher challenge in the opening set before defeating Serbia's Dusan Lajovic 7-6 (3), 6-1. Lajovic paid the price for wasting a set point in the first set.
In other first-round matches 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.
