Clement, Melzer win openers in Casablanca

Fifth-seeded Arnaud Clement of France put out 2005 runner-up Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-4, 6-1 in the first round of the Grand Prix Hassan II on Monday. Also, sixth-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria followed his run to the singles and doubles final at Houston by beating Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.

Melzer will play Jiri Vanek in the second round after the Czech downed Spain's Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 7-5, 1-6, 6-4. The only other seed in action, No 4 Andreas Seppi of Italy, lost to Bjorn Phau of Germany 7-6 (4), 6-1.

Algeria's Slimane Saoudi appeared in his first ATP main draw since the 2002 US Open and defeated another qualifier, Czech David Skoch 6-3, 6-2.

Also winners were Italy's Alessio di Mauro, and Nicolas Mahut, who will next meet countryman Clement.

First Published: Apr 25, 2006 11:58 IST