HALLE (Germany), June 9: Rainer Schuettler made a confident start to his bid for a first tournament win on home soil when he beat Dane Kenneth Carlsen 6-3 6-4 in the first round of the Gerry Weber Open tennis on Monday.

The German, seeded second, took advantage of a host of unforced errors from Carlsen to set up a second-round meeting with either Frenchman Nicolas Escude or Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.

“I actually prefer playing on grass to clay,” the Australian Open finalist said. “I think it suits my game.”

“I have improved my serve a lot in the last couple of years so I feel confident on grass now. I am only playing two grasscourt tournaments, here and at Wimbledon but I feel confident of doing well there too.”

Looking to emulate former Halle winners Michael Stich, Nicolas Kiefer and David Prinosil, Schuettler looked set for a tough battle when Carlsen, who had won both their previous matches, broke serve in the opening game.

But the world number eight hit back immediately to break back in the next game, and then lost only three more points on his own serve to cruise to the first set in 43 minutes.

Schuettler broke serve in the opening game of the second set but the left-handed Carlsen, gradually finding his range on his serve, broke back and the pair stayed level until the ninth game, when a superb backhand return gave him the crucial break.

That left him serving for the match and Schuettler made no mistake, holding serve easily to move into the last 16.

“It was one of my dreams when I was young to reach a grand-slam final and be in the top 10, so it’s a great feeling to have done that,” Schuettler said.

Consistency was the watchword for third seed Jiri Novak as he cruised past another German, Hendrik Dreekmann, 6-2 6-4 in little over an hour. Novak will now play either Austrian Stefan Koubek or Swiss qualifier Yves Allegro.

Fifth seed Younes El Aynaoui had no trouble against German wild-card entrant Christopher Koderisch, who was playing his first ATP Tour match, winning through 6-1 6-2.

There were victories for two Spaniards as Feliciano Lopez edged out Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 7-6 6-3 and Fernando Vicente hammered Lee Hyung-taik Lee of South Korea 6-4 6-0.

Roger Federer, the top seed, and Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the defending champion who is seeking a record fourth Halle title, are due to play their opening-round matches on Tuesday.

First round results (prefix number denotes seeding, denotes new results):

2-Rainer Schuettler (Germany) beat Kenneth Carlsen (Denmark) 6-3 6-4 5-Younes El Aynaoui (Morocco) beat Christopher Koderisch (Germany) 6-1 6-2 Feliciano Lopez (Spain) beat Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 3-Jiri Novak (Czech Republic) beat Hendrik Dreekmann (Germany) 6-2 6-4 Fernando Vicente (Spain) beat Lee Hyung-taik (South Korea) 6-4 6-0

Queen’s Club ATP results

LONDON: Results on the first day of the 800,000 euro (941,000 dollar) ATP tournament here on Monday (x denotes seed):