Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic

Top seed Tomas Berdych needed all his prowess to eek out a tough three set win over unheralded Russian Dmitry Tursonov. When the pressure was on, Berdych was at his best in the 7-6(2), 4-6, 6-1 victory. This was Berdych’s first match in over a month and some of the rust showed early in the match when the favorite dropped his first service game and was constantly pressured by the Russian underdog.

The Czech cruised through the first set tiebreaker but again lost his first service game of the second set. The break proved to be the difference in the second set as Tursonov leveled the match at one set each.

Berdych, who is having a strong year with a final appearance at Wimbledon and a semifinal loss at Roland Garros, opened the floodgates in the third against the Russian who has been sidelined by an ankle injury since May 2009.

The biggest name to fall on Wednesday was America’s own Sam Querrey, the sixth seed. Last week Querrey eked out a tight semifinal win against Janko Tipsarevic in the semifinals in Los Angeles, but this time around the Serb never let up. Tipsarevic made very few errors and when the going got tough, Yanko had the answers in the 7-6 (3), 6-3 upset.

The win was Tipsarevic’s first in three outings against Querrey, who was very much in form and riding a wave after his championship last week. After the Serb captured the key break in the eight game of the second set, he decisively ended the match with three of his 16 aces in the ninth and final game.

Argentina’s resurgent David Nalbandin looked sharp in his 6-1, 6-3 triumph over Switzerland 7th seeded Stan Wawrinka. In just his fifth tournament of the year, Nalbandin is trying to find his game after hip surgery in 2009. Wawrinka would most likely say the Argentine has not lost a step after the 68-minute drubbing.

Other than Berdych, the only other high seed to hold his place was 8th seeded Marcos Baghdatis. The Cypriot fired 17 aces at Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos and needed every one of them in the grueling 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5) one hour 58 minute match. In the end, it was Baghdatis’ ability to win 86 percent of his first serves that spelled the difference.

9th seed Ernests Gulbis, 10th seed Radek Stepanek, and 11th seeded crowd favorite Lleyton Hewitt did not have the same success as all three were dismissed. Gulbis fell to Ukranian Illya Marchenko as Stepanek was ousted by stubborn Marco Chiudinelli and Hewitt fell to highly regarded Colombian Alejandro Falla. Of the middle seeds, only Baghdatis and 16th seeded Andrey Golubev held their ground with a 6-2, 7-6(7) win over Belgian Kristof Vliegen.

On Thursday, Americans Mardy Fish, John Isner and second ranked Andy Roddick will swing back into action along with 4th seed Marin Cilic and colorful third seed Fernando Verdasco. It should be another great day at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.

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