October 18, 2007	Thursday	Shawwal 5, 1428

MADRID, Oct 17: British No 1 Andy Murray blew away Argentine 15th seed Juan Ignacio Chela 6-1, 6-3 to reach the third round at the Madrid Masters on Tuesday.

The 20-year-old Scot has steadily improved after missing three months of the season with a wrist injury and completely outclassed Chela after making a whirlwind start.

He broke the Argentine’s serve twice in the first set and again in the second with a confident all-round display.

Chela fought back to break Murray for the first time at 4-2 down in the second set and missed a break point in Murray’s next service game before losing his own serve again at the end.

Murray could meet world number two Rafael Nadal in the next round if the local favourite gets past Marcos Baghdatis on Wednesday.

“To beat players as good as Radek Stepanek and Chela back to back is awesome. It’s good to know I can be consistent again and I need to keep it going now for the rest of the tournament,” Murray said.

His display overshadowed world No 1 Roger Federer’s return to action with a 7-6, 6-4 win over American qualifier Robby Ginepri.

The holder, playing his first ATP match since winning a fourth straight US Open on Sept 9, was not at his best early on.

He took the first set in a tiebreak and did not break serve until the fifth game of the second when he lured Ginepri to the net and beat him with a delightful backhand lob.

“It’s tough to find a rhythm after time out. It’s much easier in practice,” Federer said.

“I managed to serve myself out of trouble once or twice which was encouraging and all in all I am happy with my performance.”

Earlier, Argentine Juan Monaco upset 11th-seed Tommy Haas of Germany 6-4, 7-5 in the second round.

Big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic continued his good form to knock former winner Marat Safin out 6-3, 6-4.

Karlovic, who won his third title of the season in Stockholm on Sunday, wrapped up the victory with his 17th ace of the match, overpowering the 2004 winner in 58 minutes.

The 28-year-old, at a career high 24 in the ATP rankings, earned a second-round match with Spaniard Oscar Hernandez.

He was due to face fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko but the Russian pulled out on Tuesday with an elbow injury.

Another former champion, Juan Carlos Ferrero, saw off qualifier Alejandro Falla 6-4, 7-5 and set up an all-Spanish second round match with Carlos Moya, the 14th seed.

Argentines David Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri, France’s Paul-Henri Matthieu, Spanish debutant Nicolas Almagro and Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer all progressed.

Tuesday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):Second round: Andy Murray (Britain) beat 15-Juan Ignacio Chela (Argentina) 6-1, 6-3; Juan Monaco (Argentina) beat 11-Tommy Haas (Germany) 6-4, 7-5; 1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat Robby Ginepri (US) 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.

First round: Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) beat Mardy Fish (US) 6-3, 2-6, 7-5; Agustin Calleri (Argentina) beat Dmitry Tursunov (Russia) 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4; Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) beat Alejandro Falla (Colombia) 6-4, 7-5; David

Nalbandian (Argentina) beat Arnaud Clement (France) 5-7, 6-2, 6-4; Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) beat Marat Safin (Russia) 6-3, 6-4; Nicolas Kiefer (Germany) beat Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) 7-5, 6-3; Nicolas Almagro (Spain) beat Fabrice Santoro (France) 6-4, 6-4.

Monday results:

First round: Fernando Verdasco (Spain) beat Albert Montanes (Spain) 6-1, 6-1; Feliciano Lopez (Spain) beat Filippo Volandri (Italy) 6-3, 6-2; Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) beat Andrei Pavel (Romania) 6-3, 4-6, 6-1; Murray beat Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) 6-4, 6-1; Mario Ancic (Croatia) beat Marc Gicquel (France) 6-4, 6-2; Juan Martin Del Potro (Argentina) beat Potito Starace (Italy) 7-5, 6-1; Stefan Koubek (Austria) beat Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4; Monaco beat Igor Andreev (Russia) 6-7 (5-7), 6-0, 6-4; Ginepri beat Juergen Melzer (Austria) 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.

LOCAL FAVOURITE WINS

ZURICH: Local favourite Patty Schnyder eased into the second round of the Zurich Open on Tuesday after sixth seed Serena Williams retired injured at 6-0, 3-0 down.

The American, who lost Sunday’s Kremlin Cup final to Elena Dementieva, looked extremely out of sorts, barely moving as she surrendered her first two service games.

Briefly leaving the court at 3-0 down, Williams returned but showed no sign of improvement, taking just three more points as Schnyder romped through the opening set 6-0 in 22 minutes.

The second set began with Williams heading for the wrong side of the court.

The American, who has made late withdrawals from previous editions of the Zurich tournament, was whistled off the court following the umpire’s announcement of her retirement “due to injury” at 3-0 down in the second set.

Schnyder’s reward for Tuesday’s light workout will be a second round encounter with the winner of Wednesday’s final opening round match between Russia’s Elena Dementieva and Italy’s Francesca Schiavone.

Former world No 1 Amelie Mauresmo, booked her place in the second round with a scrappy 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win over Greek qualifier Eleni Daniilidou.

The Frenchwoman looked in control during the opening set but then came off the worse in an error-strewn second set.

Apparently struggling with ankle problems for most of Tuesday’s match, Daniilidou finally gave way with two consecutive dropped service games midway through the deciding set.

Mauresmo, seeded eighth in Zurich, will now face Ukrainian world No 25 Alona Bondarenko for a quarter-final place.

Ninth seed Marion Bartoli also struggled on Tuesday before overcoming China’s Peng Shuai 6-7, 6-0, 6-1 to set up a second round meeting with Dutch wildcard Michaella Krajicek.

Tuesday’s results:

First round: 7-Daniela Hantuchova (Slovakia) beat Dinara Safina (Russia) 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4); Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) beat Shahar Peer (Israel) 6-4, 6-3; Patty Schnyder (Switzerland) beat 6-Serena Williams (US) 6-0, 3-0 – Williams retired; 8-Amelie Mauresmo (France) beat Eleni Daniilidou (Greece) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3; Sybille Bammer (Austria) beat Kateryna Bondarenko (Ukraine) 6-2, 6-2; Vera Zvonareva (Russia) beat Karin Knapp (Italy) 5-7, 6-2, 6-2; 9-Marion Bartoli (France) beat Peng Shuai (China) 6-7 (4-7), 6-0, 6-1.

Monday results:

First round: Michaella Krajicek (Netherlands) beat Sania Mirza (India) 6-1, 6-4; Alona Bondarenko (Ukraine) beat Timea Bacsinszky

(Switzerland) 1-6, 6-3, 6-3; Tatiana Golovin (France) beat Maria Kirilenko (Russia) 6-3, 6-4; Nicole Vaidisova (Czech Republic) beat Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia) 6-4, 6-2.—Reuters