Baghdatis, Gasquet into second round at Sydney

Sydney: Former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis beat local wildcard entry Nick Lindhal 6-2, 7-5 on Monday to reach the second round of the Sydney International, a key warmup tournament for the season`s first major.

Baghdatis, who lost the 2006 Australian final to Roger Federer, only got one-third of his first serves into play, but was only broken once in the match and broke Lindhal`s serve twice in each set.In other men`s first-round matches, Frenchman Richard Gasquet beat Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-1, 6-4, Potito Starace of Italy beat Frederico Gil of Portugal 6-1, 6-4, Uruguay`s Pablo Cuevas held off Frenchman Michael Llodra 6-2, 7-6 (1) and Andreas Seppi of Italy defeated Marinko Matosevic of Australia 6-4, 6-4. "It`s for sure a good start, because Lopez is a great player, and he has a great serve," Gasquet said. "I played well last year with semifinal in this tournament, so I`m happy to be there and to win the first match." The draw opened up in Gasquet`s bracket when his compatriot, top-seeded Gael Monfils, withdrew from the tournament earlier Monday morning due to an injured right shoulder and was replaced by Spain`s Daniel Gimeno-Travers, who initially missed out in qualifying.Seventh-seeded Jelena Jankovic went out in a 5-7, 6-1, 7-5 first-round loss to Hungarian Agnes Szavay in the women`s draw, while Elena Vesnina advanced when fellow Russian and eighth-seeded Vera Zvonareva retired at 3-3 in the first set. Flavia Pennetta, who lost the final at Auckland on the weekend to Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium, beat Australia`s Hopman Cup representative Samantha Stosur 6-3, 6-1, Poland`s Agnieszka Radwanska beat American Jill Craybas 6-0, 6-4 and Aravane Rezai of France beat Anna-Lena Gronefeld of Germany 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-2. Bureau Report