Djokovic advances in Rotterdam when opponent retires

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- Top-seeded Novak Djokovic had a winning return to the court when he advanced to the second round of the ABN Amro as Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine retired with a leg injury on Tuesday.

Djokovic was leading 6-2, 4-1 at the time.

The Serb was making his first tour appearance since losing in the Australian Open quarterfinals.

He'll next face Switzerland's Marco Chiudinelli, who beat 2008 Rotterdam champion Michael Llodra of France 6-1, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6) in 2 hours, 37 minutes. Llodra fought back from 6-1 down in the final-set tiebreaker to even it at 6-6 before Chiudinelli won the tiebreaker.

Another former champ, 2007 winner Mikhail Youzhny, beat Kazakh qualifier Andrey Golubev 1-6, 7-6 (0), 7-6 (5) in 2:19 without a single break. Golubev broke the sixth seed twice, both times in the first set.

No. 7 Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, a two-time Rotterdam finalist, was ousted by Julien Benneteau of France 6-3, 6-3.

Also, Turkish qualifier Marsel Ilhan beat Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-1, 6-4, and Dutch wild card Thiemo De Bakker defeated Czech lucky loser Jan Hajek 7-6 (5), 6-3.