Top seeds Blake, Fish lose in Houston

It was a bad day for the top seeds as number one James Blake and second-seeded Mardy Fish suffered losses in the first round of the Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston.

Blake fell victim to Guillermo Canas of Argentina in straight sets, losing 6-4 6-4, while Fish was beaten by Germany's Bjorn Phau 6-3 5-7 6-3 while only managing to save two of six break points.

Elsewhere the unseeded players seemed to have more luck.

Unseeded former champion Tommy Haas cruised to a 6-3 6-3 win over fellow German Denis Gremelmayr while unseeded two-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt needed just 65 minutes to dispatch of number seven seed Diego Junqueira.

Not all the seeds struggled, however. Number four seed Jeremy Chardy eased past American Jesse Levine 6-3 6-0, while number six seed Marcel Granollers came from a set down to begin his title defence with a 2-6 6-4 6-1 win over Brain Dabul.

In other games Chile's Paul Capdeville beat Amer Delic in a tough contest, winning 6-7 (5/7) 7-6 (7/5) 6-1. Capdeville was due to face fifth seed Sam Querrey, but he was sent home with a sore hamstring that required him to pull out.

John Isner overcame Michael Russell in the battle between two Americans 4-6 6-3 6-2, and Spain's Guillermo Garcia Lopez won 1-6 6-0 6-2 against Giovanni Lapentti of Ecuador.

Sergio Roitman came out on top against fellow Argentinian Agustin Calleri 6-3 6-3, and Scoville Jenkins bounced back from a heavy defeat in the opening set to beat Austrian qualifier Alexander Peya 0-6 6-4 6-3.

Finally in the day's late game Taylor Dent continued his comeback from injury with a 4-6 6-3 6-2 win over Brazil's Marcos Daniel.

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