Rafael Nadal began his bid for a seventh straight Monte Carlo Masters title with a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 win over Jarkko Nieminen on Wednesday.
The top-ranked Spaniard, who next faces Richard Gasquet, did not face a single break point against the Finn and extended his winning record at the clay-court tournament to 33 matches.
“Today was a positive start,” the 24-year-old Nadal said. “I think I played better than what I practiced the last days, so that’s always positive.”
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A year-ending loss to Roger Federer in the final of the ATP World Tour Finals and consecutive losses to Novak Djokovic in recent Masters finals at the Sony Ericsson Open and BNP Paribas Open mean Nadal has not won anything since the Japan Open.
Still, Nadal remains the big favorite to clinch his 44th career title and his 19th Masters tournament, even though he said he needed a bit more time to get his feeling back on clay.
“I think I needed a few more days. [It] is just the first match. [It] is positive the way I played with the forehand,” he said. “[It] was positive the way that my serve worked. It wasn’t bad. I have to play a little bit more aggressive with the backhand.”
Nadal remains unbeaten on clay since losing to Robin Soderling in the fourth round of the French Open two years ago. Nadal was undefeated on clay last year, winning two other Masters titles in Rome and Madrid and his fifth French Open.
Nadal is 7-0 against Gasquet and beat him in the 2005 semi-finals on the way to his first Monte Carlo title.
“Playing him on clay is very tough. He dropped very few sets here,” said the 13th-seeded Gasquet, who beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-2, 6-1. “What I must do is stay relaxed and try to play without hesitation and not be afraid to go for my shots.”
“This is all very well, but when you’re on the court, you’re confronted with reality,” he said.
Gasquet has lost three times on clay to five-time French Open champion Nadal.
“He always plays at 1,000 percent. He will not make the mistake of underestimating his opponent,” Gasquet said. “Because we played many times, he knows me, and sometimes I pushed him to a third set.”
Third-seeded Andy Murray finally won a match, beating Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-4.
The 23-year-old Murray had failed to win a set since losing to Djokovic in the Australian Open final, going out early in Rotterdam and at the Masters tournaments in Indian Wells and Key Biscayne.
Murray next plays 16th-seeded Gilles Simon of France, who -defeated Albert Montanes of Spain 6-3, 6-4.
Also, fourth-seeded David Ferrer of Spain easily beat Feliciano Lopez 6-2, 6-0, and No. 8 Gael Monfils of France defeated Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 7-5, 6-2.
Ferrer, who next meets big-serving Milos Raonic of Canada, broke his opponent’s serve five times, while Lopez had six double-faults.
Seventh-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria, No. 9 Nicolas Almagro of Spain, No. 11 Viktor Troicki of Serbia and No. 15 Marin Cilic of Croatia and also advanced to the third round.
Melzer defeated Robin Haase of the Netherlands 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, Almagro labored to beat Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina 6-7 (6), 7-5, 7-6 (10), Troicki beat Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
Cilic was leading Pere Riba 5-2 when the Spaniard retired. He next faces 16-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer.
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