"He played well, especially at the end of the first set," said Kuerten.
"I didn?€™t serve good the whole match so I had to work very hard from the baseline."
In a repeat of their recent final at the Toronto tournament two weeks ago, third-seeded Marat Safin of Russia increased his career edge to 2-0 over Harel Levy of Israel with a confident 6-4, 6-2 second-round win.
Safin had his serve broken by Levy in the second game of the 68-minute match.
Having never played this tournament before, Safin was initially thrown off by how large an area there is on the stadium court, but once he found a comfort level with the surroundings, he went on to break Levy?€™s serve on four of six chances presented.
"It?€™s too big, the court," said Safin. "You miss some easy balls because there is too much space and you don?€™t know where to hit. You can?€™t assimilate where is the court, and sometimes it?€™s difficult to play, but you just have to be concentrated."
Defending champion Nicolas Lapentti opened the defense of his title with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 second-round victory over Sebastien Lareau of Canada in a one hour, 37 minute match.
Fifth-seeded Lleyton Hewitt of Australia had a quick 6-1, 6-0 victory over Stefan Koubek of Austria in 44 minutes.
Seventh seeded Thomas Enqvist of Sweden, a hot prospect here after winning last week?€™s Tennis Masters Series-Cincinnati tournament, captured a 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) second-round victory over Lionel Roux of France.
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