INDIANAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Mark Philippoussis' powerful serve has not helped his cause in tiebreakers this year.

Germany's Rainer Schuettler controlled both tiebreakers en route to a 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4) first-round victory over the Australian Philippoussis at the $800,000 RCA Championships hardcourt tennis event.

Still on the comeback trail after undergoing his third knee surgery last year, Philippoussis' tiebreak record fell to 7-14 during the 2002 campaign.

"I made too many unforced errors," Philippoussis said. "I couldn't find the court on my groundstrokes. I was everywhere and was coming in to just try and make something work."

One of the tour's biggest hitters who has suffered from injuries throughout his career, Philippoussis reached his only final of the year at the season-opening event in Adelaide, Australia and advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon.

Earlier Monday, No. 14 Greg Rusedski of Britain, who broke Philippoussis' record for the hardest serve in 1998 with a 149-miles per hour bomb, powered past Albert Montanes of Spain, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

Rusedski won his only title of the year at the Heineken Open in January. The lefthander stopped a two-match skid last week at the Tennis Masters Series event in Cincinnati with a first-round upset of world No. 2 Marat Safin, but lost in the next round to Tommy Robredo.

Another hard lefthanded server, Australian Wayne Arthurs fired 15 aces and defeated Korea's Hyung-Taik Lee, 6-4, 6-3.

Arthurs appeared in the quarterfinals in Cincinnati, ousting Pete Sampras in the second round and defeating Robredo before losing to Juan Carlos Ferrero in the quarterfinals.

In the lone upset so far on Monday, Martin Verkerk of The Netherlands had 15 aces and converted 3-of-3 break-point opportunities knocked off No. 12 Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, 6-4, 6-2.

In other matches involving seeded players, No. 11 Andrei Pavel of Romania took the first four game of the final set en route to a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Jeff Morrison of the United States.

No. 13 Michael Kratochvil of Switzerland posted a 6-0, 6-2 rout of Emin Agaev of Azerbaijan, and No. 16 Fabrice Santoro of France posted a 6-2, 6-2 win over Harel Levy of Israel.

In additional action Monday, Spain's Alberto Martin rallied from a one-set, three-love deficit to beat Sweden's Magnus Larsson, 6-7 (6-8), 7-5, 6-3. Another Swede, Magnus Norman recorded a break in the final game to get past American Robby Ginepri, 7-6 (7-0), 6-4.

Germany's Nicolas Kiefer pulled away to beat Austria's Kristian Pless, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.

Stefan Koubek of Austria outdueled Ramon Delgado of Paraguay, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-1), and qualifier David Prinosil of Germany held off Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 6-2.

Armenia's Sargis Sargsian cruised past Frenchman Michael Llodra, 6-2, 6-4, and Israeli qualifier Jonathan Erlich got by Romania's Adrian Voinea, 6-2, 6-3.

First prize is $111,600.