Starace, Volandri, Gil advance in Casablanca

CASABLANCA, Morocco (AP)—Potito Starace beat Daniel Brands of Germany 7-5, 6-2 on Tuesday in the first round of the Grand Prix Hassan II.

The fifth-seeded Italian lost only 10 points on his serve and converted three of seven break points to advance at the clay-court tournament. He will next face Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain.

Also, seventh-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy downed Spanish qualifier Gerard Granollers-Pujol 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

Fognini struggled on first serve but saved eight of 13 break points and broke Granollers-Pujol seven times.

Fognini will next play Slovenia’s Blaz Kavcic, who advanced after Morocco’s Reda El Amrani retired when leading 4-3 in the first set.

Filippo Volandri of Italy progressed to meet top-seeded Albert Montanes of Spain after breaking Julien Benneteau of France four times in a 7-5, 6-3 win.

Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, Portugal’s Frederico Gil, and Germany’s Michael Berrer advanced with straight-set victories.

Ramirez Hidalgo beat Rui Machado of Portugal 7-5, 6-1, Gil beat Simone Bolelli of Italy, 6-3, 6-1, and Berrer downed France’s Nicolas Devilder 6-3, 6-3.

Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia defeated Sergio Gutierrez-Ferrol of Spain 6-1, 7-6 (5) to set up a second-round match against second-seeded Marcos Baghdatis, who is starting his clay-court season.