Djokovic, Nadal and Murray All Advance in Monte Carlo
World number one Novak Djokovic survived a second-round scare at the 2013 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, defeating Mikhail Youzhny 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. Djokovic twisted his ankle a week earlier on Davis Cup duty for Serbia, and is lacking in match practice on clay, having been restricted to one hour a day in the lead-up to protect his ankle. Djokovic is a two-time runner-up at Monte-Carlo, losing to Rafael Nadal in the 2009 and 2010 finals. He is bidding to win his third tour-level title of the season, following victories at the Australian Open and Dubai.
"My movements on the clay are still not at the maximum and not where I want them to be," said Djokovic. "But as the days go by, I think I’m going to slowly get into it and hopefully I can elevate the level of performance in the next match. Today was a big test, over two hours. I had a great quality opponent."
Djokovic will next face the 14th-seeded Juan Monaco, a 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 winner over Ernests Gulbis.
Rafael Nadal won his 43rd successive match at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, a 6-1, 6-2 win over Australia’s Marinko Matosevic. Nadal is on a 15-match winning streak. Since his return from a seven-month injury layoff in February, Rafa has finished runner-up in Vina del Mar and has won three straight titles in Sao Paulo, Acapulco and Indian Wells.
“I didn’t play my best game, the first game of the second, and he played well, so he had the break," said Nadal. "And after that he played well for a while in the next games. Then he had good chances, two break points for [a] 3-0 [lead]. It was not an easy moment. I played one good point and I was able to come back.”
Nadal advances to play Phillipp Kohlschreiber, a 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(3) winner over qualifier Pablo Andujar.
Andy Murray defeated France’s Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-1, 6-4 in his opening match, firing eight aces and breaking serve four times. Murray is coming off victory at the Sony Open Tennis in Miami, and with a 20-2 match record on the season, he is one win shy of 400 for his career.
"I won the close games, which was important," said Murray. "I didn’t make too many mistakes. It was solid. I returned well, served well. If you do those two things well on any surface. it gives you a good base to work from. It was a good start."
Murray will advance to face Stanislas Wawrinka, a 6-1, 6-1 winner over Spanish qualifier Albert Montanes. "It will be a tough match," said Murray. "Good test for me. He’s played some good tennis this year. He obviously enjoys the surface, has had some good results on it in the past. I’ll need to play well tomorrow to win that match."
