HOUSTON, Texas, 14 April 2004 — Unseeded Argentinian Franco Squillari rallied to oust third-seeded American Taylor Dent Monday as the $400,000 clay court tennis championships began.

Squillari trailed 4-1 in the second set before winning six of the next seven games to even the match at one set apiece.

“He just started playing better,” Dent said. “In the first set, he was hitting double faults. All I had to do was pretty much just put balls in the court and he’d miss. The first break he got really turned his day around. He started passing me a lot more and started serving a lot better.”

Monday’s matches came after 1 1/2 days of rain, which wiped out all of Sunday’s qualifying matches.

Fourth seed James Blake was more successful than his countryman Dent, defeating American wild card Wayne Odesnik, who was making his ATP debut, 6-4, 6-2, to advance to the second round.

In the only other match involving a seeded player, No. 7 Luis Horna of Peru routed Brian Vahaly, another wild card from the United States 6-3, 6-1.

In other first-round action, American veteran Todd Martin cruised past Italian Martin Vassallo Arguello 6-1, 6-2, and Tomas Behrend beat German compatriot Alexander Popp 6-1, 6-3.

In his last match with Arguello, in the first round of the 2002 French Open, Martin outlasted the Italian in five sets. This one did not even take an hour

Safin Keeps His Word With Win Over Frenchman

In Estoril, Portugal, Russia’s Marat Safin collected his 14th win from 16 meetings against French opponents, rallying to stop Cyril Saulnier 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 for a place in the second round of the 748,850-euro Estoril Open.

Safin lived up to his word as he overcame a difficult opponent after saying he hoped to tune up on clay against a one-two from France.

He next plays Thierry Ascione, a Monday French winner at the Estadio Nacional.

Safin shot off to a fast start, only to find himself reigned in by his 28-year-old opponent, ranked 85th in the world.

After Safin struck for a 2-1 lead in the opening set under sunny spring skies, the Russian immediately dropped serve as the set settled into a familiar clay backcourt rhythm. Safin dropped the opener on another break, but kept his composure to lift the second and square the match, putting Saulnier under pressure with two set points and converting on the first.

In the third, the seed broke twice to earn the win in just under two hours.

Safin, a quarterfinalist in 2002, improved his record to 9-6 after starting 2004 with an Australian Open final against Roger Federer.

In women’s play at the parallel WTA Tour event, No. 1 seed Elena Bovina advanced.

The Russian put out former French Open champion Iva Majoli 6-4, 6-2, while French third seed Emilie Loit ousted Belgian Els Callens 6-2, 6-2. Czech Denisa Chladkova, seeded four, defeated Yulia Beygelzimer of the Ukraine 6-3, 6-2 — Slovak Katarina Srebotnik, seeded seventh, beat Italian Rita Grande 6-7 (4 7), 6-3, 7-5.