Safin squeezes through Los Angeles opener

Former world number one Marat Safin battled past Australia's Chris Guccione 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 in the opening round of the Los Angeles Classic on Monday.

Third seed Safin, who sacked his long-time coach Alexander Volkov last week after a run of poor results, clinched the match 7-2 in the decisive tiebreak after the pair had duelled for just over two hours at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Playing in his first tournament since losing to Roger Federer in the third round of Wimbledon last month, Safin unleashed eight aces against his left-handed opponent, four of them in the third set.

The 6-foot-7 Guccione, 88th in the ATP rankings, saved two match points in the 10th game of the final set but was unable to claw his way back a second time after falling behind early in the tiebreak.

Safin, without an ATP victory since clinching his second grand slam title at the 2005 Australian Open, has never progressed beyond the second round in Los Angeles.

Another Russian, Dmitry Tursunov, swept through his opening match with a 6-1, 6-4 demolition of Thailand's Danai Udomchoke.

Fifth-seeded Tursunov, beaten by Germany's Tommy Haas in last year's final, fired down eight aces and converted four of his seven breakpoints to wrap up the match in a little over an hour.

Germany's Michael Berrer, making his debut at the event, produced the first upset of the week with a 6-4, 6-4 victory against eighth-seeded American Amer Delic.

In other matches, seventh-seeded Korean Lee Hyung-taik eased past American Kevin Kim 6-3, 6-2 and German wildcard Nicolas Kiefer, runner-up here in 2004, crushed Russia's Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-3, 6-3.

Second-seeded American James Blake, hunting his first ATP title in six months, is scheduled to play his first match of the week on Tuesday against Austria's Alexander Peya.

In the late match on the stadium court, top seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile takes on American wildcard Zack Fleishman.