Djokovic and Murray march on

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:25

Serbian Djokovic is currently next in line behind Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, but fourth-ranked Murray is narrowing the gap quickly and stands to make advances during the clay-court season.

Both men won their opening matches on clay in Monte Carlo without too much alarm on Tuesday, Djokovic thrashing Spain’s Oscar Hernandez 6-1 6-2, while Murray overcame a sluggish start to win 6-3 6-2 against Romanian Victor Hanescu.

French players Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon made early exits.

Ninth seed Monfils was thrashed 6-3 6-1 by Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic in their first-round encounter while Simon, seeded number six, lost his second-round match with German qualifier Andreas Beck 7-5 6-1.

Sixteenth seed Nicolas Almagro crashed out 7-6 (8/6) 4-6 7-6 (7/5) to Albert Montanes, but Argentina’s David Nalbandian avoided an upset after seeing off Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4 3-6 6-3.

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