Rusedski, Murray Cruise on Day One

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Greg Rusedski came through his all-British encounter against wild card Josh Goodall in the first round of the Stella Artois Championships. The British No. 2 took just 52 minutes and fired 21 aces en route to a 6-3, 6-4 victory and earn a place in the second round against either Dmitry Tursunov or Jonas Bjorkman.

"I thought my serve speed was good and the accuracy was pretty good," said a delighted Rusedski. "It was a good match to get the first grass court season underway really. I've just been working on the serve to be more aggressive on it and to hit it and just be more positive with it.That's the way I have to play. The way the guys return these days and the way you have those baseliners, you've just got to be really aggressive."

Britain's Andrew Murray also reached the second round, claiming his first career win on the ATP circuit with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Santiago Ventura of Spain. Murray took just 44 minutes to earn a meeting with either No. 9 seed Taylor Dent or Germany's Tomas Behrend.

"It was my first match on grass, and obviously I only had a day and a half practice after my French Open [junior]semi and I didn't play so well there," said Murray. "I managed to come out, I played a pretty good match today. The guy wasn't so good on grass, but still it was tough for me because I hadn't really got any practice in before."

Murray's fellow Scot Alan Mackin, the only British qualifier to make it into the main draw at this year's Stella Artois Championships, pushed No. 13 seed Igor Andreev all the way but eventually went down 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 against the Russian.

Meanwhile, Xavier Malisse recorded a 6-2, 6-0 victory over last year's semifinalist Hyung-Taik Lee to set up a second round meeting with three-time champion Lleyton Hewitt, and Roland Garros quarterfinalist Victor Hanescu overcame 1998 Stella Artois champion Scott Draper in three sets.

In the doubles, Australian duo Lleyton Hewitt and Mark Philippoussis came back from a set down to defeat Americans Rick Leach and Travis Parrott 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

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