Seeds Safely Through In European Championships' Comeback

All but one of the top sixteen men's seeds comfortably overcame their first round opposition in the European Individual Championships at the National Tennis Centre in Bratislava. The event, being staged in the Slovakian capital after an absence of more than ten years, has attracted players from 19 European nations.

Following the withdrawal of Dutchman Tommy Berden and England's Lee Beachill and Nick Matthew, there was a re-draw in the men's event - with Scotland's world No7 John White now seeded to add the European title to the British National crown he gained earlier in the year.

White cruised to a 9-1 9-2 9-0 win over Ukraine qualifier Roman Dolynych and now meets Slovenia's Klemen Gutman for a place in the quarter-finals. The Scotsman is expected to meet France's Gregory Gaultier in the men's final. The No2 seed from Aix-en-Provence swept to a 9-0 9-0 9-2 victory over local qualifier Atilla Dobai and goes on to face Germany's 9/16 seed Patrick Gaessler.

Jakob Dirnberger claimed the only upset of the day - and the only first round match to go beyond three games - when he removed Belgium's 9/16 seed Rob Aerts 1-9 9-6 9-1 2-9 9-5. The unseeded Austrian now meets Scotland's fifth seed Martin Heath.

Men's qualifying finals:
Roman Dolynych (UKR) bt Maciej Chadzynski (POL) 9-3, 9-2, 9-2
Marcin Leszewicz (POL) bt Andrew Brattner (RUS) 9-1, 9-3, 9-3
Roman Celler (SVK) bt Tomasz Wawszczyk (POL) 9-0, 9-2, 9-1
Atilla Dobai (SVK) bt Waldemar Paturej (POL) 6-9, 9-1, 9-0, 9-0

1st round:
[1] John White (SCO) bt [Q] Roman Dolynych (UKR) 9-1, 9-2, 9-0
[9/16] Klemen Gutman (SLO) bt Alexei Severinov (RUS) 9-0, 9-1, 9-1
[9/16] Leopold Czaska (AUT) bt Marek Zvoncek (SVK) 9-1, 9-3, 9-3
[6] Jan Koukal (CZE) bt Ivan Djordjevic (SCG) 9-2, 9-2, 9-0
[8] Mark Krajcsak (HUN) bt Jakub Stupka (CZE) 9-5, 9-2, 9-2
[9/16] Andras Torok (HUN) bt Aqeel Rehman (AUT) 9-5, 9-2, 9-4
[9/16] Andreas Fuchs (AUT) bt Martin Stepan (CZE) 9-3, 9-3, 9-1
[4] Adrian Grant (ENG) bt [Q] Marcin Leszewicz (POL) 9-2, 9-0, 9-0
[3] James Willstrop (ENG) bt [Q] Roman Celler (SVK) 9-1, 9-1, 9-1
[9/16] Derek Ryan (IRL) bt Marek Manik (SVK) 10-8, 9-1, 9-7
Jakob Dirnberger (AUT) bt [9/16] Rob Aerts (BEL) 1-9, 9-6, 9-1, 2-9, 9-5
[5] Martin Heath (SCO) bt Nasos Karasavvas (CYP) 9-4, 9-1, 9-3
[7] Stefan Leifels (GER) bt Andrej Schmidtmayer (SVK) 9-5, 9-3, 9-0
[9/16] Sandor Fulop (HUN) bt Pavel Sladecek (CZE) 9-5, 9-5, 9-5
[9/16] Patrick Gaessler (GER) bt Domagoj Spoljar (CRO) 10-8, 9-4, 9-7
[2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) bt [Q] Atilla Dobai (SVK) 9-0, 9-0, 9-2