RALEIGH, North Carolina, 2 February 2005 — Top seed Vince Spadea had little trouble defeating fellow American Hugo Armando 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the Millennium International Tennis Championships at Delray Beach, Florida, on Monday.
The right-handed Spadea made it to the final of last year’s event before losing to Brazil’s Ricardo Mello, who was among four other seeds to advance.
The fifth-seeded Mello needed a tiebreaker to edge the Czech Republic’s Tomas Zib in the first set before easing away to a 6-3 margin in the second.
Third-seeded Xavier Malisse of Belgium beat American Jeff Morrison 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, seventh seed Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark stopped American Eric Nunez 7-5, 6-4 and eighth-seeded Kevin Kim of the US defeated Frank Dancevic of Canada 6-4, 6-1.
The tournament continues until Sunday with more first-round action taking place on Tuesday.
Ancic, Seppi Advance
In Milan, Italy, third-seeded Mario Ancic of Croatia defeated Czech Bohdan Ulihrach 6-4, 7-5 Tuesday to advance to the second round of the US$375,750 Internazionali di Lombardia ATP indoor tournament.
It was a close match for the 20-year-old Croat, who was a losing finalist to Antony Dupuis in the 2004 Milan indoor final.
Andreas Seppi also advanced as he won an all-Italian first-round match with qualifier Uros Vico 6-2, 7-6 (3).
In a late match at Palalido sports palace, Italy’s Davide Sanguinetti, a 2002 Milan indoor champion, plays sixth-seeded Rainer Schuettler of Germany.
