Stuttgart, Germany (Sports Network) – Former champion Mikhail Youzhny was an easy opening-round winner, while former top-five star Nikolay Davydenko was among Tuesday’s losers at the $645,000 Mercedes Cup tennis event.

The third-seeded 2002 Stuttgart titlist Youzhny of Russia moved on with a 6-3, 6-3 pasting of German Philipp Petzschner, while little-known German wild card Cedrik-Marcel Stebe upended the sixth-seeded Russian Davydenko 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 on the red clay at TC Weissenhof.

More Day-2 upsets came when Colombian Santiago Giraldo grounded second-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-4, 7-5 and Argentine qualifier Federico Del Bonis bounced fifth-seeded German favorite Florian Mayer 6-2, 6-3.

Former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero returned from an injury layoff to beat German lucky-loser Bastian Knittel 6-2, 6-4. The Spanish Ferrero, who is also a former French Open champion, will meet Youzhny in the second round on Thursday.

Several other men reached the round of 16, including Italian Fabio Fognini, Polish wild card Lukasz Kubot and Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, who titled here in 2009. Chardy bested German Tobias Kamke 7-6 (7-1), 6-1.

Top-seeded and 2010 Stuttgart runner-up Gael Monfils was leading Romanian Victor Hanescu, the ’09 runner-up to Chardy, 4-2 when play was suspended because of rain on Tuesday. Monfils lost to Spaniard Albert Montanes in last year’s finale here.

The 2011 Mercedes Cup champion will earn $98,000.

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