Australian Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was among Monday's opening-round winners, while 10th-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny came up a loser at the $2.955 million Masters Series Hamburg, a clay-court French Open tuneup.
The 14th-seeded Tsonga was bageled in his opening set against fellow Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, but Tsonga fought back to pull out a 0-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 victory at Rothenbaum.
Youzhny, meanwhile, was sent packing by Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-2 on Day 2.
In other action involving seeds, No. 12 Argentine Juan Monaco topped Italian Filippo Volandri 6-1, 4-0, No. 15 Brit Andy Murray mauled Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-1 and German crowd favorite Nicolas Kiefer cut down No. 16 Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-4. Volandri retired due to a right knee injury.
In some other first-round play, Frenchman Michael Llodra beat Argentine Guillermo Canas 7-6 (9-7), 6-2, Spaniard Albert Montanes dismissed American Mardy Fish 6-1, 6-3 and former world No. 1 Marat Safin, of Russia, rolled past Croat Marin Cilic 7-5, 6-2. The two-time Grand Slam champion Safin, a qualifier this week, was the Hamburg runner-up back in 2000 and 2002.
Additional wins came for Czech lucky-loser Ivo Minar, Italians Andreas Seppi and Simone Bolelli, Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela and Belgian lucky-loser Olivier Rochus.
On Tuesday, second-round matches will come for the likes of fourth-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko, fifth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer and eighth- seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet, the 2005 Hamburg runner-up. Davydenko will face former top-10 star Ivan Ljubicic, while Ferrer will take on Minar and Gasquet will encounter Seppi.
This week's top seed, Swiss superstar Roger Federer, beat Spanish clay-court wizard Rafael Nadal in last year's Hamburg finale. It marked Federer's fourth title here in six years (2002, 2004-05, 2007).
Federer is joined in the field here by the three-time French Open champion Nadal and Aussie Open champ Novak Djokovic, who's fresh off his clay-court title last week at the Italian Masters. Djokovic will battle the aforementioned Chela here on Wednesday.
