Roddick wins in Shanghai opener

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Andy Roddickwas among Monday’s opening- round winners at the $3.24 million Shanghai Masters.

The 10th-seeded former world No. 1 Roddick snuck past qualifier Yen-Hsun Lu of Taipei 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 on the hardcourts at the beautiful Qizhong Tennis Center. Roddick broke serve in the fourth and eighth games of the final set and prevailed in 1 hour, 52 minutes.

The 15th-ranked Roddick popped 10 aces and Lu could manage only one break of serve on Day 2.

“He plays so high risk,” Roddick said. “You know, overall I thought it was pretty good, save four games maybe.”

Roddick is now 4-1 lifetime against Lu, who stunned the American star in a fourth-round match at Wimbledon last year after Roddick had finished as the runner-up at the All England Club a year earlier.

Up next for Roddick, who lost in the first round last week in Beijing, will be promising Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday.

Monday’s other seeded victor was No. 16 Fernando Verdasco, who leveled helpless Chinese Zhe Li, 6-2, 6-2.

Former world No. 3 and former Wimbledon runner-up David Nalbandian of Argentina handled Latvian Ernests Gulbis 7-5, 6-4, while former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain topped Russian Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 and rising American Donald Young bested China’s Mao-Xin Gong 6-1, 6-4.

Additional first-round wins came for the aforementioned Dimitrov, Spaniards Tommy Robredo, Albert Montanes and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Aussie Bernard Tomic, Colombian Santiago Giraldo, and Aussie Matthew Ebden. Tomic will encounter fifth-seeded American Mardy Fish here on Tuesday.

This week’s top seeds are former runner-up Rafael Nadal and reigning champ Andy Murray, who upset all-time great Roger Federer in last year’s marquee Shanghai finale. Nadal lost to Russian Nikolay Davydenko in the 2009 title tilt here and gave way to Murray in last week’s championship bout in Tokyo.

Nadal will face his fellow Spaniard Garcia-Lopez in a second-rounder on Wednesday.

The 2011 Shanghai champion will earn $620,000. This marks the eighth of nine ATP Masters tournaments this year.