Top seed Blake rallies past Bjorkman at Stockholm Open

Two-time defending champion James Blake had a hard-fought start to his quest for another crown at the Stockholm Open.

The top-seeded Blake had to fight back from a set down to record a 6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 6-3 victory over Jonas Bjorkman on Tuesday.

Losing the first set against the local favorite was a rare deficit for the American, who had dropped just two sets in winning his 10 previous matches in this $960,000 indoor tournament.

"Jonas played great and put a lot of pressure on me early," Blake said. "I felt we both had a ton of chances we could have taken advantage of in the first set."

Blake also faced some very tense moments in the second set, falling behind 2-4 before rallying. Despite pulling even at 5-5, he was broken on his next service game to go behind 5-7 before forcing and winning the tiebreaker.

"I got down a break in the second, but made sure not to hang my head at all," Blake said. "I went after my shots in that 4-2 game, came back, and then felt like I has a second life and felt like I could go after my shots even more. I felt that the pressure was off then."

Blake fired 13 aces and converted six of 18 break chances en route to improving to 3-0 all-time against Bjorkman.

Another deep run here would help Blake's bid for a first appearance at the year-ending Tennis Masters Series. He is currently ninth in the eight-man race, six points behind Spain's Tommy Robredo for the final spot.

The next opponent for Blake will be the winner between Canada's Frank Dancevic and Dutch qualifier Peter Wessels .

Fourth seed Tommy Haas rolled into the second round with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Olivier Rochus of Belgium on Tuesday.

A semifinalist here in 2004, the German had eight aces and converted 3-of-5 break chances to improve to 3-0 all-time against Rochus.

"I have to say I was feeling great on the court, I was returning unbelievably," Haas said. "He can be dangerous, especially indoors."

The next opponent for Haas will be Spain's Albert Montanes , who captured a first-round win on Monday.

In the only other match involving a seeded player was No. 7 Ivo Karlovic battled past Nicolas Massu of Chile, 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (4-7), 6-4.

A former top-10 player, Mario Ancic made a successful return to the tour with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over American Amer Delic .

The 23-year-old Croatian has had a disastrous year, missing six months with mononucleosis and being forced to withdraw from the U.S. Open with a shoulder injury to drop to 56th in the rankings.

"I'm just happy to be on the court this year," Ancic said. "The goal for this year is hopefully I can play these couple of tournaments until the end of the year, be healthy, be with the fans, be with the guys in the locker room, have fun, this is everything what I've been missing."

A two-time winner in 2000 and 2004, Thomas Johnsson advanced due to a retirement to Juan Martin Del Potro with an illness. Johansson was leading, 6-4, 1-0, when play was stopped.