Top seed and 2002 champion Andy Roddick defeated Thomas Johansson 6-2, 7-5 in one hour and 17 minutes on Wednesday in a battle of former Grand Slam title winners. Roddick, the 2003 US Open champion, improved his career record to 4-0 against the Swede, who captured the 2002 Australian Open crown.

Roddick broke Johansson three times and saved one break point en route to his 11th match win of the season (11-2). The fourth-ranked Roddick also improved his career record to 18-4 in Memphis. "Overall I was pleased. I wanted a win out of it tonight so I got exactly what I wanted. On top of that, a bonus, I thought I hit the ball pretty well and moved well. I’m not sure Thomas played his best game. It’s important for me to win here. I’ve got to get past what I call “freaky Friday” where I turn an ankle or pull a back muscle or I do something. So I got through Wednesday, get through Thursday and maybe give myself a shot at “Freaky Friday.”

Roddick will face Benjamin Becker in the second round on Thursday in a rematch of their fourth round meeting at last year's US Open. Roddick won that match 6-3, 6-4, 6-3, en route to the final. Becker rallied to defeat American Robert Kendrick 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in his Memphis debut.

Third-seeded Andy Murray rallied from a 2-4 third set deficit to defeat Canadian No. 1 Frank Dancevic 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, in one hour and 47 minutes in the final first round match. Murray, who successfully defended his first career ATP title in San Jose last week, improved his match record to 13-2 on the season. He will play Kristian Pless of Denmark in the second round on Thursday.

Murray appeared in control early on, losing only four points on his serve in the opening set. He fired eight aces (of 11 in the match) in the first set. But in the second set Dancevic broke to go up 4-2 and Murray broke back in the ninth game. But Dancevic broke back in the next game at 15-40 to win the set. In the final set, Dancevic went up 3-0 and then held a 4-2 advantage before Murray broke in the seventh game. He held for 4-all and then broke Dancevic in the next game when the Canadian netted a backhand volley. Murray closed out the match by holding at 40-30 as Dancevic hit a backhand into the net.

“Obviously I’m glad to come through but I’ve got to give him some credit,” said a relieved Murray afterwards. “I think he missed like two first serves in the whole second set. When I lost my serve to start the second set I lost my rhythm a little bit and he started playing some really good tennis. But it’s all about playing and coming through those matches.”

“I didn’t change my tactics in the second set, I just stopped serving as well. He got into a lot of the rallies because I missed my first serve and I probably did make a few too many mistakes. I only hit about 25 minutes on center court today and it takes time getting used to the surface. It’s a really different atmosphere in there… low roof and the crowd really near. The ball doesn’t fly as much as in San Jose and that took a little bit of getting used to.

“He served really well and hardly missed the first serve. I lost a lot of service games to love and return games to love and I don’t normally do that. He was putting a lot of pressure on me because that’s normally what I do really well, get myself into those return games and put pressure on them and maybe make a few more errors on my service games. But today was the complete opposite. He was the one forcing me on returns and that was what he did really well today. He was aggressive at the right times and came to the net and had some good volleys and just played a really good set and a half. I just had to weather the start and find a way and I managed to do that.”

In other first round play, seventh-seeded Julien Benneteau of France, a semifinalist here last year, defeated Hyung-Taik Lee of Korea 7-5, 6-3, and American teenager Sam Querrey fired 17 aces in his 6-3, 6-2 victory over last week's SAP Open finalist Ivo Karlovic. Querrey broke the big-serving Croat three times and never faced break point in the 52 minute match. Karlovic, who hit a San Jose tournament record 113 aces last week, only connected for five aces on Wednesday.

In second round action, Austrian left-hander Stefan Koubek advanced to his second ATP quarterfinal of the season with a 7-6(4), 6-2 victory over Russian teenage qualifier Evgeny Korolev. The 30-year-old Koubek opened the season with a runner-up in Chennai (l. to Malisse). Koubek is playing in Memphis for the first time in eight years.

Qualifier Teimuraz Gabashvili reached his first career ATP quarterfinal with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 victory over American wild card Alex Kuznetsov. The 21-year-old Russian fired 13 aces and only dropped his serve once in the one hour and 51 minute match. Gabashvili will face the winner of fourth-seeded Mardy Fish-Juan Martin del Potro on Friday.