Football
Associated Press 18y

Ancic beats Lopez in China

BEIJING -- Third-seeded Marcos Baghdatis came back from a
4-1 deficit in the last set to beat Germany's Denis Gremelmayr 4-6,
6-1, 7-6 (5) in the first round of the China Open on Tuesday.

Baghdatis, the Australian Open runner-up, was also behind 5-3 in
the tiebreaker.

Top-seeded Ivan Ljubicic led two other Croatians -- No. 4 Mario
Ancic and Ivo Karlovic -- into the second round.

Ljubicic defeated Go Soeda of Japan for his 50th win this year
on the ATP tour. The world No. 3 entered the China Open late to
help his bid for one of the six remaining berths in the
season-ending Masters Cup.

"(After) playing very badly at the U.S. Open and not having
enough matches, this was a great opportunity to try to make points
for the Masters Cup," he said.

Ancic, back for the first time since Wimbledon after injuring
his knee on a yacht, battled to beat Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-3,
3-6, 6-3.

"I am happy to win the match and be able to go back on court,"
Ancic said. "I have been through too much in the past seven
weeks."

Karlovic served 10 aces in beating Mikhail Ledovskikh of Russia
6-2, 7-6 (2) for his first win since the French Open in May.

Qualifiers Satoshi Iwabuchi of Japan and Luka Gregorc of
Slovenia also won, along with Michael Berrer of Germany and
Alexander Peya of Austria.

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