STUTTGART — Fifth-seeded Bernard Tomic beat Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 6-3, 7-6 (5) in reaching the second round of the Mercedes Cup, one of the grass-court events leading up to Wimbledon. Tomic, Australia's highest-ranked player, has made starts in most of his tournaments this year but passed the quarterfinals only once. Eighth-seeded Viktor Troicki swept past rising Croatian hope Borna Coric 6-2, 6-0. Coric won only one point on Troicki's serve in the second set. German qualifier Mischa Zverev defeated seventh-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria 7-6 (4), 6-2, and other winners included Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus and Andreas Haider-Maurer of Astria. Rafael Nadal was the top seed, and had a bye into the second round. Seeds fall In Nottingham, seeded players Karin Knapp and Ajla Tomljanovic lost in the first round of the Nottingham Open Monday as top-level women's tennis returned to the central England grass-court venue for the first time in 42 years. The fourth-seeded Knapp lost 6-4, 6-2 to Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium, and Tomljanovic, the No. 8 seed from Croatia, was beaten 4-6, 7-6 (1), 7-5 by Lauren Davis of the United States. Other winners before rain arrived late in the afternoon were Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, Bojana Jovanovski and Ana Konjuh. When play resumed, fifth-seeded Alison Riske of the US completed a 6-3, 6-4 win over China's Saisai Zheng. Vandeweghe advances In the Netherlands, CoCo Vandeweghe started the defense of her Topshelf Open title with a 7-6 (1), 6-1 win over Andreea Mitu Monday as the season shifted to grass. The third-seeded Vandeweghe, who won her sole career title in the Netherlands last year, trailed 4-1 in the first set before she found her range. She saved four of the five break points she faced and fired nine aces. Mitu was overwhelmed in the tiebreak and dropped her serve twice in the second set. Fifth-seeded Camila Giorgi progressed with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Irina Falconi. In men's play, Robin Haase defeated Blaz Kavcic 6-2, 7-5 and Gilles Muller beat Marsel Ilhan 6-0, 7-5. — Agencies
