Close call for Davydenko in New Haven

The top two seeds in the men's draw at the Pilot Pen tournament in New Haven progressed into the third round today - although it was far from easy for Nikolay Davydenko.

The number one seed was pushed all the way by American Robbie Kendrick in the first set, needing a marathon tie-break to move ahead.

He finally won it 12-10, before breaking in game eight of the second set to seal a 7-6 (12/10) 6-3 win.

Things were a little easier for second seed Fernando Verdasco, who cruised to a 6-0 6-3 win over Paul Capdeville.

His fellow Spaniard, and third seed, Tommy Robredo became the highest-profile casualty so far when he was beaten 3-6 7-5 7-6 (7/5) by Jose Acasuso.

Robredo seemed set for a comfortable night when he claimed the first set with a pair of breaks but Acasuso secured the crucial break in the second before a seesaw third set went to a tie-break, which the Argentinian won.

Elsewhere, there were wins for the seventh and eighth seeds, Igor Andreev and Victor Hanescu - the latter needing three sets to get past Janko Tipsarevic - but ninth seed Nicolas Almagro was downed by Bjorn Phau of Germany.

Jurgen Melzer progressed when his opponent, Pablo Cuevas, withdrew, while Igor Kunitsyn and Fabrice Santoro were also second-round winners.

Twelfth and 13th seeds Philipp Petzschner and Andreas Beck lost to Frederico Gil and Simone Bolelli respectively, while Andreas Seppi saw off Yen-hsun Lu and Leonardo Mayer beat Olivier Rochus.

In the women's draw, there second-round wins for Amelie Mauresmo and Anna Chakvetadze.

Eighth-seeded Frenchwoman Mauresmo strolled past Alona Bondarenko 6-1 6-1, while the Russian saw off Sybille Bammer 4-6 6-4 7-5.

Third seed Flavia Pennetta was in first-round action, beating Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-1 6-2, while sixth seed Marion Bartoli and Samantha Stosur also reached the second round.

Champion Caroline Wozniacki made a perfect start to the defence of her crown, the second seed denying Romania's Edina Gallovits a single game in a 6-0 6-0 victory.

There were further seeded casualties in the men's tournament, with wild card Rajeev Ram defeating fellow American Mardy Fish, the fifth seed and two-time runner-up, 6-3 6-3 while 10th seed Jeremy Chardy lost 6-7 (8/10) 7-6 (7/4) 6-1 to Florent Serra.

Seventh seed Igor Andreev ended the hopes of another American, beating Kevin Kim 6-3 6-1.