Blake wins opening match, Gremelmayr upsets Querrey in San Jose 1st round

Second-seeded James Blake easily won his opening match at the SAP Open on Tuesday, beating Sam Warburg 6-3, 6-1 to shake off the memory of a stunning upset loss two days earlier.

Blake, the world's ninth-ranked player and a perennial fan favorite in San Jose, needed just 55 minutes to dispatch fellow American Warburg.

After losing to 18-year-old Kei Nishikori of Japan in Sunday's International Tennis Championship final of at Delray Beach, Blake bounced back to move Warburg around the court with sharp serves and groundstrokes in almost every game. He finished the match with consecutive aces.

"Everything was working pretty well out there," Blake said. "I'm feeling good, and it's always good to be in this tournament. I've been coming here for several years, and even when I wasn't exactly healthy, I was playing here."

Warburg clearly was outclassed in his third match on the ATP Tour, following a second-round loss at the Australian Open to finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Even a substantial cheering section of friends and relatives at HP Pavilion didn't help.

"I was always kind of scrambling," Warburg said. "I didn't feel very comfortable with my feet. I felt like my serve went off a little bit because of all the pressure he put on me. He was just getting the ball real early and taking really wide swings. I felt like he was on the baseline and I was behind the baseline. I felt like I was running and he was in control."

Earlier, German qualifier Denis Gremelmayr upset seventh-seeded Sam Querrey 5-7, 7-6 (1), 6-3 in the first round.

Querrey reached the semifinals at Delray Beach, but couldn't finish off the second set against Gremelmayr, who earned only his second win on the main tour in 12 months.

Another German, Benjamin Becker, ended a three-match losing streak by beating Marcos Daniel 6-1, 3-0 when the Brazilian retired with a groin injury.

Also, Robby Ginepri beat Jesse Witten 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 and Mardy Fish finished cruised past Tim Smyczek 6-3, 6-4 in all-American matches, while Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan beat Belarus' Max Mirnyi 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-2 in Tuesday's final match, which stretched well past midnight.