Former champion Ferrero wins in Monte Carlo
MONTE CARLO, Monaco — Two-time former champion Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain rallied to beat Michael Llodra of France 6-7 6-1 6-1 in the opening round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Monday.
Llodra missed a chance to tie at 2-2 in the third set, wasting two break points with unforced errors.
The 13th-seeded Ferrero never looked troubled after that and won the match with a lob after drawing Llodra to the net with a drop shot.
Ferrero, the 2002 and ‘03 champion, next plays Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, who upset French ninth seed Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4 2-6 6-3.
Ferrero’s 10th-seeded compatriot Carlos Moya — who won both the Monte Carlo and French Open in 1998 — was upset 6-3 1-6 6-3 by Sam Querrey of the United States.
The 20-year-old Querrey, who won his first career title at Las Vegas on hard courts last month, will play either unseeded Italian Andreas Seppi or Argentina’s Agustin Calleri in the second round.
In other action on Monday, Mario Ancic of Croatia beat Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic 6-3 6-4 to earn a second round clash with second seed Rafael Nadal of Spain.
Nadal, the reigning French Open champion, is renowned as the best clay court player in the world.
Roger Federer, fresh from his Estoril Open success on Sunday, is top seed at the prestigious Masters Series tournament.
Britain’s Andy Murray, who had never previously won a match in Monte Carlo, also reached the second round by seeing off Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 7-6 6-4.
The first thing you need to work on is the patience, and I did that today, said Murray, who has hired two-time French Open finalist Alex Corretja for the clay-court season.
Today I didn’t play all that aggressive. I was trying to keep the ball high and deep.
The Scottish 14th seed will next play either Italy’s Filippo Volandri, who beat Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-2 6-3.
Kristof Vliegen of Belgium defeated Fabrice Santoro of France 7-6 6-1 to set up a clash with French seventh seed Richard Gasquet, who had a first-round bye.
Olivier Rochus, who like his compatriot Vliegen came through the qualifiers, led 6-1 3-0 against Tommy Haas before the unseeded German retired with an injured right shoulder.
Every time you start playing on clay, you have to do more than you are used to, Haas said. I just feel like the shoulder is really nagging again.
The reward for Rochus is a second-round clash with Argentine sixth seed David Nalbandian.
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