Top Teams Open Basel Campaigns

© Getty ImagesSwiss wild cards Marco Chiudinelli and Roger Federer suffered defeat on their team's debut.

Three-time former champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan made a strong start to their Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel campaign, dismissing wild cards Yves Allegro of Switzerland and Croatian Ivan Ljubicic 6-1, 6-4 Tuesday at the ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament.

In a dominant display by the second seeds, they dropped just six points on serve and converted three of five break point chances to seal victory after 46 minutes. The Americans first clinched the Basel title on their debut in 2002 (d. Knowles-Nestor) and followed with victories in ’04 (d. Arnold Ker-Hood) and ’07 (d. Blake-Knowles).

Mike Bryan is closing on his 600th match win and could reach the milestone by advancing to the final this week. He currently stands on a 598-207 mark. The Bryans are bidding to reach their 11th tour-level final of the season; they have won six titles, including the Australian Open (d. Bhupathi-Knowles).

Top seeds and reigning ATP World Tour Champions Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic survived a scare in their first-round match, rallying from a set down to defeat South Americans Lucas Arnold Ker and Fernando Gonzalez 4-6, 6-3, 10-5.

World No. 1 Nestor is looking to reach his fourth final in Basel this week. Following a runner-up finish in 2002 with former long-time partner Mark Knowles, the Canadian returned to capture the title in ’03 and ’06, both times with Knowles.

Switzerland’s Marco Chiudinelli and Roger Federer could not build on their individual wins in the singles as James Cerretani and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi defeated the wild cards 6-4, 6-3 in 69 minutes. Federer, a winner of eight ATP World Tour doubles titles, was playing doubles for just the second time this season, following a first-round exit with Allegro at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

At the Valencia Open 500, top seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski missed a chance to take a big stride towards qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals as they were ousted in the first round by Romanians Victor Hanescu and Horia Tecau 6-3, 3-6, 11-9 at the ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament.

The Polish duo is currently eighth in the year-to-date 2009 ATP Doubles Team Rankings and had the chance to significantly add to its points total this week as it is contesting just its 16th event of the season.