Verdasco, Melzer advance at Monte Carlo Masters

Topics: From the Wires,

Verdasco, Melzer advance at Monte Carlo MastersDonald Young of USA plays a return to France's paul Henri Mathieu during their match of the Monte Carlo Tennis Masters tournament in Monaco, Monday, April 16 , 2012. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)(Credit: AP)

MONACO (AP) — Fernando Verdasco of Spain and Jurgen Melzer of Austria advanced to the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Monday.

The 13th-seeded Verdasco, a finalist in 2010, dropped serve twice in the first set, but then did not face another break point in beating Belgium’s Olivier Rochus 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. He next plays Croatia’s Ivan Dodig.

The 15th-seeded Melzer had an easier match, breaking Poland’s Lukasz Kubot five times en route to a 6-2, 7-5 win. He next faces Marcel Granollers of Spain or Frenchman Julien Benneteau.

Paul-Henri Mathieu, trying to find his way back after a long-term knee injury, thrashed Donald Young 6-0, 6-1. The Frenchman saved four break points of his own and broke Young’s serve six times.

“I was happy the way I was moving, and I was keeping the ball in the court,” Mathieu said. “I don’t have the knees of a 20-year-old anymore. But I’m able to play 100 percent without any problems. Things are improving.”

Mathieu next plays No. 12 Kei Nishikori of Japan or Spain’s Albert Ramos, runner-up Sunday at the Grand Prix Hassan II tournament.

In other first-round matches, Australia’s Bernard Tomic, Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany and Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen won in straight sets.

The 19-year-old Tomic was happy with how he mixed sliced forehands with heavy groundstrokes in his 6-4, 6-3 win against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

“Regardless of any surface, he’s pretty hard to play against,” Tomic said. “A lot of clay-court players play behind the line. But I think my tennis is something different. If I play my tennis, they struggle with my game even on clay.”

Kohlschreiber won 6-4, 6-4 against Frenchman Guillaume Rufin, while Nieminen beat fellow veteran Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-6 (3) to earn a second-round match against seven-time defending champion Rafael Nadal of Spain.

Next Article

Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Comments are not enabled for this story.