MONTE CARLO: Novak Djokovic got away to a 6-1, 6-4 winning start to the clay season here on Tuesday, with the locally based world number one pleased with a second-round defeat of Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Djokovic, who lives a few hundred metres from Court Central at the seaside Country Club, was happy to bring home the straight-set win in less than 90 minutes.

“For a first match on clay, it was pretty good,” said the winner of back-to-back hardcourt Masters 1000 titles in the US.

“I’m happy to have started so strong.

“There is a lot of work to be done on the clay, I knew I had a dangerous opponent, one who plays well on thin surface.

“I’m glad to be back home and playing against him in Monte Carlo,” said the 2014 semi-finalist.

“I was very motivated and concentrated today on court.”

Djokovic is playing for the 142nd week on the ATP number one ranking, putting him one week ahead of Rafael Nadal on the top honour.

Roger Federer, Monte Carlo second seed, leads that statistical category with the all-time best of 302 weeks in the top spot.

Djokovic is also bidding to become the first player to win the opening three ATP Masters 1000 tournaments of the season after claiming Indian Wells and Miami honours.

Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon, Jeremy Chardy and Lucas Pouille moved into the second round as a pair of compatriots lined up challenges against leading seeds.

Number 11 Tsonga beat Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 6-4 while number 14 Monfils had to overcome three breaks in the last four games of his contest before securing safe passage into the second round with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Russian Andrey Kuznetsov.

Simon, seeded tenth, defeated Monaco’s Benjamin Balleret 6-4, 6-2.

The hardest work on the clay looks to be awaiting an unheralded French pair at the event which kick starts the six-week run to Roland Garros.

Chardy defeated Diego Schwartzman 7-5, 6-2 to book a spot opposite Federer as the Swiss begins the quest for a first career trophy at the venue where he finished runner-up a year ago to Stan Wawrinka.

Number 108 Pouille will also have his work cut out as he plays eight-time champion Nadal. The French wild card beat Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-4 a week after the young Austrian went through an invitation-only private training block with Federer in Zurich.

Nadal is desperate to maintain his title as king of clay and start to turn around what for the Spaniard has been a horror showing so far in 2015.

Nadal exited early at both of the March hardcourt events in the US and has spent a fortnight on clay in his native Mallorca trying to re-discover his feel for his preferred surface.

The 28-year-old won the last of his Monte Carlo titles in 2012 and has his hopes again set on a successful road to Paris and the French Open in six weeks.

Monfils, who has never been past the second round at the tournament since first playing here a decade ago, had to battle through a tough opening encounter with Kuznetsov, whom he beat in Marseille two months ago.France’s Adrian Mannarino fell to Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-0 as another Spaniard Tommy Robredo, seeded 16th, beat Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.

Results (x denotes seeding):

First round: Gael Monfils (FRA x14) bt Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; Marcel Granollers (ESP) bt Adrian Mannarino (FRA) 6-3, 6-0; Lucas Pouille (FRA) bt Dominic Thiem (AUT) 6-4, 6-4; Juan Monaco (ARG) bt Jiri Vesely (CZE) 6-4, 6-2; Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA x11) bt Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) 6-4, 6-4; Jeremy Chardy (FRA) bt Diego Schwartzman (ARG) 7-5, 6-2; Gilles Simon (FRA x10) bt Benjamin Balleret (MON) 6-4, 6-2; Tommy Robredo (ESP x16) bt Andreas Seppi (ITA) 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.

Second round: Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) bt Albert Ramos-Vinolas (ESP) 6-1, 6-4.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2015

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