Ferrer off to shaky start in Barcelona

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Last year's finalist David Ferrer had to work hard to beat Kazakh qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3 3-6 6-1 in the Barcelona Open Tuesday.

The Spanish fourth seed was joined in the third round by Russian 12th seed Igor Andreev who swept aside Alberto Martin of Spain 6-2 6-2.

Ninth seed Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic appeared to benefit from a 90-minute break for rain as he survived a fightback to win his first-round match against Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4 2-6 6-4.

The only seed to fall was number 11 Marat Safin who went out 6-4 6-1 in the first round to Argentine Juan Monaco.

Swede Robin Soderling, Frenchman Richard Gasquet and Spaniard Feliciano Lopez were the other seeds who won through to the second round.

World number one Rafael Nadal, winner the past four years in Barcelona, has a bye into the second round and begins his title defence Wednesday against Portugal's Frederico Gil.

Nadal became the first man to win the Monte Carlo Masters five times in a row when he beat Novak Djokovic in Sunday's final and is favourite for a fifth consecutive French Open title when the claycourt grand slam starts in five weeks.

(Writing by Mark Elkington; Editing by Sonia Oxley)