ATP

• Blake loses, Nalbandian advances in DC

  Washington, DC (Sports Network) - Former champion James Blake lost, while David Nalbandian advanced in first-round action Monday at the $1.402 million Legg Mason Tennis Classic, a hardcourt U.S. Open Series event.

  Blake, who titled here in 2002 and was the runner-up in 2005, dropped his match to fellow American Ryan Sweeting, the 119th-ranked player in the world. Sweeting took a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory at the Fitzgerald Tennis Center.

  Meanwhile, the Argentine Nalbandian easily dropped American Rajeev Ram, 6-4, 6-0, in just 52 minutes.

  Additional opening-round wins came for Russians Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov, Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin and Serbian Viktor Troicki. Thiemo De Bakker of the Netherlands, German Michael Berrer, Ukrainian Illya Marchenko, and Slovenian Grega Zemlja also advanced.

  Juan Martin del Potro, who is not defending his titles this week, topped American star Andy Roddick in last year's final here and also captured this event in 2008.

  The top seeds are Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych and the three-time D.C. winner Roddick, both of whom received byes. All 16 seeds received byes into the second round at this 48-player tournament.

  The 2010 Legg Mason champion will pocket $261,500.

  08/03 00:33:07 ET