Nalbandian, Ferrero advance in Monte Carlo Masters

Tenth seed Tomas Berdych improved to an 18-7 season record Monday after hitting seven aces past Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in a 6-3, 6-1 win in 66 minutes at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Monday.

Berdych won 74 per cent of service points to win his first match over Lopez in six meetings since October 2007 at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel. The 24-year-old Czech advanced to the Sony Ericsson Open final in Miami (l. to Roddick) just eight days ago.

Argentine wild card David Nalbandian maintained his record of never having lost in the Monte-Carlo first round Monday, when the former World No. 3 knocked out German Andreas Beck 6-3, 6-1 in 69 minutes on a perfect day at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay-court tournament.

Former World No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, the 2002-03 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters champion, and his Spanish Davis Cup team mate David Ferrer started their campaigns at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay-court tournament on Monday.

Ninth seed Ferrero knocked out compatriot Marcel Granollers, a qualifier, 6-0, 6-3 in just 70 minutes on Court Central. He dropped just 14 points in the opening set, which lasted 29 minutes, winning 72 per cent of service points. He improved to 29-7 lifetime at the event.

Germany’s Philipp Petzschner accounted for Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 in two hours and 18 minutes during the afternoon session. Overall Spaniards went 3-2 on day two at the Monte-Carlo Country Club.

In the final singles match of the day, 14th seed Juan Monaco hit five aces to edge past former World No. 13 and qualifier Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 7-5, 7-5 in one hour and 56 minutes. The Argentine, runner-up to Thomaz Bellucci at the Movistar Open in Santiago two months ago, improved to a 17-7 mark on the year.


Monday, 12 April 2010

Singles - First Round
[9] J Ferrero (ESP) d [Q] M Granollers (ESP) 60 63
[10] T Berdych (CZE) d F Lopez (ESP) 63 61
[11] D Ferrer (ESP) d [Q] P Luczak (AUS) 62 64
[14] J Monaco (ARG) d [Q] J Nieminen (FIN) 75 75
D Nalbandian (ARG) d A Beck (GER) 63 61
N Almagro (ESP) d S Greul (GER) 36 75 62
P Kohlschreiber (GER) d T Bellucci (BRA) 26 63 76(3)
E Gulbis (LAT) d M Chiudinelli (SUI) 63 62
P Petzschner (GER) d G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 63 26 62
B Becker (GER) d [WC] B Tomic (AUS) 64 62
[Q] A Golubev (KAZ) d J Chardy (FRA) 62 76(2)
J Benneteau (FRA) d [Q] O Dolgopolov Jr. (UKR) 64 57 62
[WC] R Gasquet (FRA) d [Q] D Gimeno-Traver (ESP) 62 46 62