Del Potro outlasts Lopez in Sydney marathon

SYDNEY -- Former U.S. Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro, returning from a wrist injury that sidelined him for much of 2010, beat sixth-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-7 (5), 7-6 (9), 7-6 (3) Monday in the first round of the Sydney International.

The Argentine saved a match point in the second set and finally prevailed on his first match point in the third-set tiebreaker, hitting a forehand to the open court. The match took more than three hours to complete.

"I didn't expect this kind of match for the start, but we played a beautiful match, very close," Del Potro said. "Feliciano is a fantastic player on this kind of surface, and I played good tennis again."

Florian Mayer of Germany and Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine also advanced.

Defending champion Marcos Baghdatis withdrew from the tournament due to a left groin injury he picked up during a training session over the weekend. The second-seeded Cypriot, a 2006 finalist at the Australian Open, was replaced in the main draw by lucky loser Lukasz Kubot of Poland.

In women's play, French Open champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy lost to Alisa Kleybanova of Russia 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-2 and sixth-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia was eliminated by Aravane Rezai of France 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.

Roland Garros runner-up Samantha Stosur of Australia advanced to the second round by beating Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 7-5, 6-4, while seventh-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 and eighth-seeded Li Na of China defeated Anastasia Rodionova of Australia 6-1, 6-2.