ranked Rafael Nadal made a winning start in his Japan Open debut downing Colombian Santiago Giraldo 6-4, 6-4 to reach the second round Tuesday. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's defense of his Japan title lasted two hours as he lost to Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 in his first match since June 30. In the Thailand Open, Nadal lost to fellow Spaniard and eventual champion Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Garcia-Lopez took more than two hours Tuesday to beat Rajeev Ram of the United States 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-6 (1). Nadal next faces Canadian qualifier Milos Raonic, who beat France's Florent Serra 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Second-seeded Andy Roddick downed Japanese wild card Tatsuma Ito 6-4, 6-3 to open his first tournament since the US Open. Djokovic, Murray advance In Beijing, top-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia opened his China Open defense with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Gong Maoxin of China to ease into the second round Tuesday. Britain's Andy Murray, the No. 2 seed, also had an easy win, beating Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 6-2, 6-3, while third-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden dropped the first set before downing Tommy Robredo of Spain 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. In other matches Tuesday, Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine beat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-4, 6-4 and Spain's Nicolas Almagro defeated Lukasz Kubot of Poland 7-5, 6-2. In the second round of women's singles, former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova lost to Russian compatriot Elena Vesnina 7-6 (3), 6
