Nadal eases through in opening match in Monte Carlo

Five-time defending champion Rafael Nadal required just one hour to beat former junior World No. 1 Thiemo de Bakker 6-1, 6-0 at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Wednesday.

Nadal raced into a 5-0 lead in the first set, before de Bakker won his first game. Nadal was forced to save three break points from 0/40 in the fourth game of the second set. He dropped just 22 points in the match: 13 in the first set, nine in the second set.

The Spaniard will next meet Michael Berrer of Germany, who overcame Argentine No. 14 seed Juan Monaco 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 42 minutes. It was the pair's first meeting since the 2006 MercedesCup in Stuttgart.

Top-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic was impressive in his first match at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Wednesday, when a capacity crowd – that included England rugby internationals – watched the Monaco resident beat Florent Serra of France 6-2, 6-3. His 84-minute victory sets up a repeat of last year’s semi-final versus Swiss No. 13 seed Stanislas Wawrinka.

"I have to be happy with the game because it's the first clay court match - not including Davis Cup - since Roland Garros last year," said Djokovic. "Some things can be better, like [my] serve and maybe [my] movements but [I'm still adjusting to the surface and conditions.

Djokovic, runner-up to Rafael Nadal last year, raced into a 4-0 lead in the first set but didn’t have his usual fluency on serve and was forced to saved nine break points overall. His superiority in groundstroke battles was evident in the second set and he sealed his 16th win of the year when Serra hit a backhand return out.

"It was tough," said Serra. "I felt stuck from the beginning. He was playing very deep, very high. I had to step back. I didn't serve well enough and when I tried to go up to the net, I was always late."


Wednesday, 14 April 2010

Singles - Second Round
[1] N Djokovic (SRB) d F Serra (FRA) 62 63
[2] R Nadal (ESP) d [Q] T de Bakker (NED) 61 60
P Kohlschreiber (GER) d [3] [WC] A Murray (GBR) 62 61
D Nalbandian (ARG) d [7] M Youzhny (RUS) 46 63 76(5)
[8] I Ljubicic (CRO) d M Llodra (FRA) 63 76(3)
[9] J Ferrero (ESP) d B Becker (GER) 63 64
[11] D Ferrer (ESP) d [Q] A Golubev (KAZ) 63 62
[12] T Robredo (ESP) d V Troicki (SRB) 64 63
[13] S Wawrinka (SUI) d E Gulbis (LAT) 61 64
M Berrer (GER) d [14] J Monaco (ARG) 64 64
P Petzschner (GER) d [15] J Melzer (AUT) 76(4) 62
A Montanes (ESP) d A Seppi (ITA) 76(1) 36 60