Becker breezes through to Nishikori clash

Memphis (AFP) - Cypriot wildcard Marcos Baghdatis, Croatian Ivo Karlovic and Germany's Benjamin Becker recorded straight-set victories to book second-round matches with seeded players at the $647,000 ATP US Indoor Championship.

Becker saved all three break points that he faced in beating Slovakia's Lukas Lacko 6-3, 6-2 on Tuesday and advanced to a second-round clash with defending champion and top seed Kei Nishikori of Japan.

Nishikori, who like the other top-four seeds received a first-round bye, defends his Memphis crown after helping Japan beat Canada in the first round of the Davis Cup earlier this month.

Baghdatis, who reached the Australian Open final in 2006, beat US qualifier Rajeev Ram 6-3, 6-4 to book a second-round date with Australian third seed Lleyton Hewitt.

Baghdatis, ranked 134th in the world, has not won two matches in a row since last year's US Open, when he lost in the third round to Stanislas Wawrinka, who went on to win the Australian Open earlier this year.

Since then, Baghdatis has lost eight of his past 10 matches but against Ram he was lethal, firing 10 aces and dispatching his opponent in just 75 minutes.

Karlovic blasted 14 aces to beat Aussie Matthew Ebden 7-5, 6-4, and advance to a second-round meeting with Spanish second seed Feliciano Lopez.

Kazak eighth seed Mikhail Kukushkin advanced by defeating Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili 7-6 (11/9), 7-5.

Kukushkin could face Taiwan fourth seed Lu Yen-Hsun in the quarter-finals.