Sixth seed Irakli Labadze of Georgia reached the second round of the 355,000-dollar ATP tennis tournament here on Monday, rallying to beat Alex Kuznetsov in three sets. Labadze dropped the first set against the American wild card but bounced back to post a 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory. The only other seeded player in action on the opening day of play was number eight Lars Burgsmuller of Germany, who struggled before emerging with a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) victory over Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan.

Burgsmuller's fellow-German Tommy Haas is the top seed here. Coming off a loss to Max Mirnyi in the semi-finals at Memphis on Saturday, Hass will open his campaign here against wild card Donald Young of the United States on Tuesday night.

The tournament also sees the 2005 ATP debut of 28-year-old Australian Mark Philippoussis, whose career nose-dived during a calamitous 2004 that included injury and personal problems.

Philippoussis, who has been recovering from a thigh muscle injury suffered in the Hopman Cup in January, was scheduled to take on Germany's Tomas Behrend on Tuesday. American Vince Spadea, the defending champion, is the second seed, followed by Croatian Mario Ancic.

Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark, who defeated Mirnyi in Sunday's final at Memphis to claim his third career title, is seeded seventh.

Monday's night session, featuring American Jan-Michael Gambill against Serb Janko Tipsarevic, was washed out by rain.

COLLATED RESULTS (x denotes seeded player):

(FIRST ROUND): Lars Burgsmuller (GER x8) bt Lu Yen-Hsun (TPE) 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3); Giovanni Lapentti (ECU) bt Wesley Moodie (RSA) 6-4, 6-1; Irakli Labadze (GEO x6) bt Alex Kuznetsov (USA) 3-6, 7-5, 6-1; Justin Gimelstob (USA) bt Kristof Vliegen (BEL) 6-3, 7-6 (7/3); Jeff Salzenstein (USA) bt Alex Bogomolov (USA) 6-3, 7-6 (7/4); Jan-Michael Gambill (USA) vs Janko Tipsarevic (SCG) postponed, rain.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005