Top seeds safely through in Marrakech

Top seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas and the second-seeded Kyle Edmund made comfortable progress in the opening round of the Grand Prix Hassan II.

Spaniard Ramos-Vinolas faced few problems as he saw off home hope Amine Ahouda 6-1 6-2 in Marrakech.

British number one Edmund raced into a 5-0 lead against Jiri Vesely and what was already shaping up to be a routine win for the 23-year-old became even easier when Vesely retired from the match.

It was not all plain sailing for the seeds though.

Holland’s Robin Haase, the fifth seed, went down 4-6 6-4 7-5 to Mirza Basic of Bosnia and Alexandr Dolgopolov, the seventh seed from Ukraine, lost 6-2 6-3 to Italian Andrea Arnaboldi.

At the US Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston, Ivo Karlovic beat Taro Daniel 7-6 (7/5) 6-4 and will face Denis Kudla in the next round, Horacio Zeballos saw off Yoshihito Nishioka in less than an hour 6-1 6-2 and Nicolas Kicker beat Donald Young 6-3 6-2.

Americans Ryan Harrison and Steve Johnson are through to the next round, seeing off Miomir Kecmanovic 6-4 6-3 and Ernesto Escobedo 3-6 7-6 (7/5) 6-2 respectively.

Completing the draw for the next round are Guido Pella, who beat Stefan Kozlov 6-3 6-2 and Taylor Fritz who saw off Tim Smyczek 6-7 (3/7) 6-2 7-6 (8/6).