Led by top seed David Ferrer of Spain, seeded players had an easy day on Tuesday as almost all moved through to the second round of the clay-court Copa Claro.
Ferrer had no trouble beating Argentine Andres Molteni 6-1, 6-0.
“I’m happy to get out of the first round, and I think he [Molteni] was a little nervous,” Ferrer said.
Photo: Reuters
Molteni had plenty of support from local fans, who were hoping for revenge for Spain’s victory over Argentina last year in the Davis Cup final in Seville, Spain.
“I like fans supporting the local players,” Ferrer said. “It’s the normal thing to do, and personally I like it.”
No. 2 Nicolas Almagro of Spain advanced against Potito Starace of Italy 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), and No. 3 Gilles Simon of France defeated Rui Machado of Portugal 6-3, 7-5.
No. 5 Juan Monaco of Argentina moved on when Filippo Volandri of Italy retired in the second set with an injury. Monaco was leading 6-1, 3-1.
Seventh-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain also reached the next round, beating Eric Prodon of France 6-4, 6-1.
The biggest upset came when eighth-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina lost to Albert Ramos of Spain 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Home favorite David Nalbandian defeated Wayne Odesnik of the US, 6-2, 6-3.
“Always playing at home is special,” Nalbandian said. “It was a little windy out there today and the ball was moving around a bit.”
In other matches, Benoit Paire of France defeated Javier Marti of Spain 2-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2, Igor Andreev of Russia won over Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia 6-2, 6-2 and Federico -Delbonis of Argentina defeated Frederico Gil of Portugal, 6-2, 6-2.
OPEN 13
AP, MARSEILLE, FRANCE
Nikolay Davydenko hit nine aces and did not face a single break point as he beat Andreas Beck of Germany 6-1, 7-5 on Tuesday to reach the second round of the Open 13.
Davydenko, a semi-finalist at the ABN Amro World Tennis final in Rotterdam, Netherlands, last week, broke Beck’s serve three times in the match. The Russian next faces fourth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina for a place in the quarter-finals.
No. 5-seeded Richard Gasquet also advanced after a comfortable 6-0, 6-2 win over Go Soeda. Although the Frenchman took little more than one hour to win, he had to save seven break points against his aggressive Japanese opponent.
Gasquet next plays Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn, who saved seven of the eight break points he faced in a 6-4, 6-4 win over Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain.
In other first-round matches, Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Albano Olivetti advanced in straight sets, while -David Goffin of Belgium was up 6-2, 1-0 against Adrian Mannarino when the Frenchman retired.
Mahut hit 12 aces in beating Arnaud Clement 6-3, 6-4 and will play another Frenchman, top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in the second round. Olivetti, meanwhile, did not face a break point in his 6-4, 6-3 win over Matthias Bachinger of Germany.
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