Tomas Berdych.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych advanced to the second-round of the SAP Open with a hard-fought 6-1, 6-7 (5), 7-5 win over American Wayne Odesnik on Monday.

Berdych dropped just one game in the opening set, before Odesnik fought back. The Czech held a break point chance to make it 5-3 in the third set, but Odesnik held.

Odesnik fended off two more break points in the 12th game of the third set before Berdych converted on his third match point opportunity to win in two hours 27 minutes.

"I got some break point chances in the last game and finally converted," said Berdych. "He was playing really well from the second set on and it was a tough match. I am happy to get through it."

Berdych next faces Finland?s Jarkko Nieminen, who rallied to beat German Lars Poerschke 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

American Taylor Dent continued his comeback from a drawn out back injury by beating countryman Alex Bogomolov Jr. 6-4, 7-6 (2), while Argentine Leonardo Mayer downed Latvia's Ernests Gulbis 7-5, 6-4.

In other matches, Israeli Dudi Sela beat Colombian Santiago Giraldo 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4) and Uzbekistan?s Denis Istomin downed 17-year-old American Ryan Harrison 6-2, 7-5.

Earlier, former No. 1 Pete Sampras showed glimpses of his dominating best in a 6-3, 7-6 (2) exhibition loss to Spain's Fernando Verdasco.

Second-seeded Verdasco and top-seeded, seventh-ranked American Andy Roddick open play here Wednesday.