Almagro Through In Straight-Sets; British Wild Card Beats Lopez

© Getty ImagesJames Ward is appearing at just his third ATP World Tour tournament of the year.

Top-seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro opened his 2010 grass-court campaign Tuesday at the AEGON International, an ATP World Tour 250 tournament in Eastbourne, with a 7-5, 7-6(3) win over Poland’s Lukasz Kubot.

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Almagro, who is making his first appearance since a quarter-final run at Roland Garros (l. to Nadal), converted on three of his six break point opportunities to defeat Kubot for the second time this year.

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The 18th-ranked Almagro improved to a 29-14 season record, putting him alongside Andy Roddick at No. 6 on the list of match wins leader in 2010. He will look to reach his sixth quarter-final of the year when he next confronts Uzbekistani Denis Istomin.

British wild card James Ward recorded the biggest win of his career on Tuesday, knocking out World No. 30 Feliciano Lopez, the Spanish second seed.

World No. 342 Ward, the son of a London taxi driver, who spent four years training at the Equelite Juan Carlos Ferrero Academy in Vilenna near Valencia, was unable to convert one match point opportunity at 5-3 in the second set. Lopez retired with a shoulder injury when Ward was about to serve for the match at 6-3, 5-4 after 74 minutes of play.

Lopez, who reached the AEGON Championships semi-finals (l. to Fish) last week and captured his second ATP World Tour title at the SA Tennis Open in Johannesburg (d. Robert) in February, dropped to an 18-13 match record on the season.

Other first-round winners included Yen-Hsun Lu, a 6-4, 6-4 victor over Karol Beck, and former Wimbledon semi-finalist Rainer Schuettler, who defeated Andrey Golubev 6-2, 6-3. Schuettler advanced to the semi-finals at The Queen’s Club last week (l. to Querrey).

Ukrainian Illya Marchenko progressed to his second ATP World Tour quarter-final of the year after he ousted sixth seed Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 7-6(2), 6-3 in just over 90 minutes. Marchenko, who saved eight of nine break points, also reached the last eight at the Open 13 in Marseille (l. to Tsonga) in February. The World No. 81 improved to a 9-9 season mark.

Fifth-seeded Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez dropped seven points on serve to defeated Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-2, 6-2 in just 54 minutes for a quarter-final berth.