Escude closed the first-round match by winning 12 of the final 13 games to beat top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, 5-7, 6-1, 6-0, at the hardcourt event.

In the lone second-round contest Wednesday, Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic stunned third seed Marat Safin of Russia, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Escude avenged his loss to Ferrero in their only previous meeting. The Spaniard dismissed the Frenchman in straight sets on the way to finishing as the runner-up at the 2000 Barcelona claycourt event.

"In the beginning of the second set, the whole match turned," Ferrero said. "I started to make a lot of mistakes and he started to play very well. I couldn't find my rhythm again."

A finalist at last week's Marseille Open, Escude has jumped up to 11th in the 2002 ATP Champions Race with his strong start to the year. He also reached the semifinals at the Milan Indoor, falling to eventual champion Davide Sanguinetti.

Escude will face Spain's Tommy Robredo in the second round on Thursday.

In his first ATP event since losing the Australian Open final, Safin lost his first career meeting with Ulihrach.

"It was not great tennis out there," Safin said. "It's really sad that I lost in the second round. Two days ago, I played very well. He played really well and was just too good for me."

Ulihrach reached the quarterfinals of an ATP event in 2002 for the second time. He advanced to the final four at Doha, Qatar in the opening week of the year.

Swiss star Roger Federer was the only seeded player to post a victory Wednesday. The seventh seed rolled over Dutch wild-card entrant John Van Lottum in the first round, 6-3, 6-4.

"I think I served consistently," Federer said. "But I still think I can improve my return game."

Federer, last year's runner-up at Rotterdam, has enjoyed a strong start to the year, winning the title at Sydney in January and reaching the final at Milan earlier this month. He will meet Thomas Enqvist of Sweden in the next round.

The winner of last week's Marseille Open, Enqvist recorded his sixth straight ATP Tour victory with a 6-2, 6-3 triumph over Andrei Pavel of Romania.

Enqvist also won both of his singles matches in Sweden's come-from-behind victory over Great Britain in the first round of the Davis Cup.

A part of that British disappointment in Birmingham, England, Greg Rusedski also endured a first-round setback at Rotterdam. Arnaud Clement of France outdueled Rusedski, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

"He didn't make any unforced errors," said Rusedski, who had suffered with a cold all week. "The big shots were the key today. I must have missed 10-15 shots within an inch. Unfortunately, I didn't get the preparations I wanted."

The Frenchman looks for his first quarterfinal berth of the year when he takes on Australian Open champion and fifth seed Thomas Johanson of Sweden.

In other action Wednesday, Max Mirnyi of Belarus recorded a 6-3, 6-2 first-round win over Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic.

Mirnyi will meet Swiss qualifier Ivo Heuberger in the second round.

The winner collects $128,400.