World Indoor Tournament

Corretja struggled with Nieminen's serve

Seventh seed Alex Corretja fell at the first hurdle in Rotterdam as he was beaten 6-4 6-0 by Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.

The Spaniard has failed to notch up a win on the ATP tour since reaching the third round of the Madrid Masters last October.

And his wretched run continued when he failed to negotiate his left-handed opponent's thundering service returns and was beaten in just 62 minutes.

"That was a lot easier than expected," Nieminen said after the match.

Dutch eighth seed Sjeng Schalken made amends for his first-round exit on home soil last year as he swept aside Belgium's Christophe Rochus 6-3 6-3.

The world number 19, who enjoyed his most successful season on the ATP tour in 2002, stamped his authority on the match from the start.

"It was a big relief to get that win because I had trouble playing well here last year," said Schalken.

"But I'm feeling a lot more confident this year and felt comfortable out there so I hope to do well."

It was not all bad news for the Rochus family as Christophe's brother, Olivier, eased past Austria's Stefan Koubek 6-2 6-1 to set up a meeting with Schalken.

Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty will face either sixth seed Sebastien Grosjean or Renzo Furlan of Italy in the second round after beating Romania's Adrian Voinea 6-4 6-2.

Max Mirnyi of Belarus was forced to come back from a set down as he beat Croatian Mario Ancic 6-7 (5) 7-6 (5) 6-4.

Buenos Aires Open

Local players held sway at the Buenos Aires Open as only Jose Acasuso was beaten.

And Acasuso was beaten by eighth seed Guillermo Coria, another Argentine.

Franco Squillari was the only other Argentine to even lose a set.

Brazilian Andre Sa took the opener against Squillari, but then fell 2-6 6-3 6-2.

Squillari will next face fellow Argentine David Nalbandian, seeded second, who brushed aside Spain's Fernando Vicente 6-3 7-5.

Edgardo Massa beat Spain's Alberto Martin 6-3 6-4 and Mariano Zabaleta eased past Hungary's Attila Savolt 6-3 6-4 to make it four wins out of four for the Argentine contingent.

Former world number ones Gustavo Kuerten and Marcelo Rios face each other on Tuesday, when top seed Carlos Moya faces David Ferrer.

St Jude Classic

Fourth seed Wayne Ferreira and eighth seed Kenneth Carlsen were the two main casualties on day one of the St Jude Classic in Memphis.

Jeff Morrison beat Ferreira 7-5 6-4, while Carlsen was knocked out by Eric Taino 6-7 (4/7) 6-4 6-4.

Mardy Fish, Robbie Ginepri , and Brian Vahaly also won to make it five American wins on the first day of action.