Melzer, Ferrero advance at Croatia Open

Melzer defeated Argentine Brian Dabul 6-3, 7-5, and Ferrero beat Belgian Christophe Rochus 6-2, 6-3.

In an upset, Italian Fabio Fognini battled back to beat eighth-seeded German Mischa Zverev 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Seventh-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi avoided an upset
by fending off Argentine qualifier Juan Ignacio Chela 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.

Spaniard Fernando Verdasco beat Russian Igor Andreev in last year's Umag finale, but neither man is playing here this year. This week's top seeds are last week's Hamburg champion Nikolay Davydenko of Russia and Spain's David Ferrer.

Play was postponed Monday, which was declared a national day of mourning in Croatia following a train accident that occurred three days ago.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International.