Ljubicic ends drought, reaches second round in Umag

UMAG, Croatia -- Ivan Ljubicic won his first match in over a month and advanced to the second round of the Croatia Open with a 6-1, 6-2 victory against Mikhail Kukushkin on Tuesday.

The fifth-seeded Ljubicic needed only 52 minutes to bounce the 21-year-old Russian, never facing a break point and losing only five points on his serve.

Ljubicic had lost three of his previous four matches -- including a first-round exit at Wimbledon as his ranking dropped from No. 3 in the world two years ago to No. 30 -- and is looking to claim his first title of the season.

After Umag, Ljubicic plans to skip both events in Cincinnati and Toronto to prepare for the Beijing Olympics.

Guillermo Canas of Argentina also moved into the second round, defeating Nicolas Massu of Chile 7-5, 6-2.

Massu led 5-4 in the first set and was serving for the set before Canas rallied to win nine of the next 11 games.

Eighth-seeded Brazilian Marcos Daniel also advanced, beating Carlos Berlocq of Argentina 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in a match that had 13 breaks of serve.

In other matches, Serbian Viktor Troicki -- a semifinalist in Umag last year -- defeated Jiri Vanek of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-1.

Elsewhere, it was Misha Zverev of Germany beating Luka Belic of Croatia, 6-2, 6-3; Daniel Gimeno-Traver defeated Olivier Patience 6-2, 6-2; and Maximo Gonzalez eliminated Filip Prpic 7-5, 6-3.

The top four seeded players -- Fernando Verdasco, Ivo Karlovic, Carlos Moya and Igor Andreev -- had a bye in the first round.