Berdych digs deep to battle back from brink

SECOND seed Tomas Berdych saved three match points before rallying to beat Ruben Bemelmans 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 last night to reach the second round of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle.

The Czech faced the match points in the second-set tiebreak before finishing off the Belgian in two hours, 16 minutes at the Wimbledon warm-up. "I believed until the very last point was played. I was feeling quite good on the court even though the score didn't look like that," said Berdych, who won the tournament in 2007. "I know how tough it is to close the match, and I used my experience over him."

Berdych only broke Bemelmans' serve once, to open the third set, and sealed the match with an ace. Berdych is the highest-seeded player remaining after No 1 Roger Federer withdrew on Monday. But the 2010 Wimbledon finalist does not want to be called the favourite. "That's just how the people and the media look at the tournament," he said. "For me it's the same regardless of my seed. If I do well I have a chance to win the tournament."

Third-seed Gael Monfils of France eased past compatriot Florent Serra 6-4, 6-3 in just 56 minutes in his Gerry Weber debut.

Monfils, ranked a career-high eighth this week, will next face Ivan Dodig of Croatia.

However, 2009 winner Tommy Haas of Germany was eliminated after losing to Andreas Seppi of Italy, 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3.

Earlier, fifth-seeded Viktor Troicki and eighth-seeded Milos Raonic both breezed into the second round with easy victories. Troicki, who helped Serbia win the 2010 Davis Cup title, needed just 53 minutes to get past Mischa Zverev of Germany 6-2, 6-3. Troicki will next play Igor Andreev.

Raonic took just a bit longer to dispatch of Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-3, 6-1. The 20-year- old Canadian's second-round opponent will be Tobias Kamke of Germany. The sixth-seeded Florian Mayer had a harder time beating German compatriot Dustin Brown 7-6 (8-6), 2-6, 6-3.

At the WTA Sony Ericcson Open in Copenhagen, Denmark's world No 1 and top seed Caroline Wozniacki delighted the home crowd with a straighforward 6-2, 6-3 first-round win over American Irina Falconi.

In Birmingham, Russian qualifier Arina Rodionova upset top-seeded Kaia Kanepi 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of the Aegon Classic grass-court tournament.

Rodionova, who had had two matches in qualifying, advanced to the last 16 against 2009 champion Magdalena Rybarikova after the 14th-seeded Slovakian beat Coco Vandeweghe of South Africa 6-2, 6-1. Mirjana Lukic defeated the only other seeded player to lose, saving a match point to win 6-7 (2), 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 against No 5 Roberta Vinci of Italy.