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| April 18, 2007 | Wednesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1428 |
Nalbandian survives scare before reaching 2nd round
MONTE CARLO, April 17: David Nalbandian survived an early scare to move into the Monte Carlo Masters second round with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Italian qualifier Federico Luzzi on Monday.
The Argentine ninth seed, a French Open semi-finalist last year, was troubled by his opponent in the early games before waking up and clinching the win in one hour and 44 minutes.
Nalbandian now meets either Romania's Andrei Pavel or German Philipp Kohlschreiber for a third round spot.
Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero, who won the tournament in 2002 and 2003, went past Briton Tim Henman with a 7-5, 6-2 victory.
Henman's willingness to attack the net was not rewarded as he lost his serve in the 11th game with a drop shot that went out, allowing Ferrero to clinch the set.
The second set was a mere formality for the 2003 French Open champion, who broke twice to wrap up the win.
Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela beat former French Open finalist Martin Verkerk of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-2 to set up a claycourt specialists clash with holder Rafael Nadal, who will be out to stretch his 62-match winning streak on clay.
Russian Igor Andreev, the last man to beat Nadal on the slow surface, brushed aside Argentine Jose Acasuso 6-4, 6-1.
Max Mirnyi of Belarus made light work of Cypriot 14th seed Marcos Baghdatis, winning 7-5, 6-4 to book his place in the second round.
Big serving Mirnyi wrapped up the win in one hour and 38 minutes on his first match point and will meet either Austrian Juergen Melzer or Argentine qualifier Sergio Roitman.
Belgian Kristof Vliegen set up a second round clash with former world number one Marat Safin when he beat Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-5, 6-3.
The Frenchman was suffering from gastro-enteritis.
His compatriot Marc Gicquel, who was 5-2 down in the decider, won five games in a row to get past German Florian Mayer 7-5, 5-7, 7-5.
Russian Mikhail Youzhny and Czech Radek Stepanek both benefitted from the retirements of their opponents, Spain's Carlos Moya and Frenchman Gael Monfils respectively.
Stepanek will take on Croatian seventh seed Ivan Ljubicic in the next round while Youzhny meets South Korea's Lee Hyung-taik.
Former French Open champion Moya was 6-2, 3-1 down when he pulled out with thigh pains.
Monfils, who has not won a match since beating Baghdatis in the Australian Open second round, was booed off the court by the crowd when he quit with an injury trailing 6-0, 2-0.
Swede Robin Soederling set up a meeting with world number four Nikolay Davydenko by beating Belgian Olivier Rochus 6-4, 6-4, while Argentine Gaston Gaudio recovered from being a set down to beat Russian Dmitry Tursunov 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.
World number one Roger Federer was scheduled to begin his claycourt season with a second round meeting with Italian Andreas Seppi on Tuesday.
Monday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):
First round: Igor Andreev (Russia) beat Jose Acasuso (Argentina) 6-4, 6-1; Gaston Gaudio (Argentina) beat Dmitry Tursunov (Russia) 5-7, 6-2, 6-2; 16-Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) beat Tim Henman (Britain) 7-5, 6-2; Juan Ignacio Chela (Argentina) beat Martin Verkerk (Netherlands) 7-5, 6-2; Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) beat Gael Monfils (France) 6-0, 2-0 – Monfils retired; 13-Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) beat Carlos Moya (Spain) 6-2, 3-1 – Moya retired; Robin Soederling (Sweden) beat Olivier Rochus (Belgium) 6-4, 6-4; 9-David Nalbandian (Argentina) beat Federico Luzzi (Italy) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1; Kristof Vliegen (Belgium) beat Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) 7-5, 6-3; Marc Gicquel (France) beat Florian Mayer (Germany) 7-5, 5-7, 7-5; Max Mirnyi (Belarus) beat 14-Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) 7-5, 6-4; Andreas Seppi (Italy) beat Teimuraz Gabashvili (Russia) 6-1, 6-3.—Reuters
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