Max Mirnyi effected the first major upset of Masters Series Monte-Carlo Monday when he defeated 14th seed and former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis.
Taking advantage of relatively fast conditions for clay, Mirnyi served and volleyed his way to a 7-5, 6-4 victory. The Belarusian attacked the net at every opportunity, winning an impressive 82 percent of points on his first serve and saving seven of eight break points faced. Mirnyi volleyed with authority and Baghdatis was unable to come up with enough clean passes to force his opponent to retreat to the baseline.
Playing his first clay court tournament of the year, Mirnyi claimed just his second career win in seven appearances in Monte-Carlo. He also snapped a five-match losing streak dating back to his second-round loss to Dmitry Tursunov at the Australian Open. Mirnyi is also playing doubles in Monte-Carlo. He is seeded No. 2 with regular partner Jonas Bjorkman.
Baghdatis, who was making his Monte-Carlo main draw debut, has suffered first-round losses in his past four tournaments since reaching back-to-back finals in Zagreb (d. Ljubicic) and Marseille (l. Simon).
David Nalbandian continued his 2007 trend of recovering from slow starts to reel in Italian qualifier Federico Luzzi 3-6, 6-2, 6-1. The 2006 Tennis Masters Cup champion has now come from a set down in three of his past four victories.
The ninth-seeded Argentine claimed his first clay court victory of the season and leveled his match wins record on the year to 7-7. A 2004 Monte-Carlo quarterfinalist, Nalbandian is yet to reach a quarterfinal in 2007. In 2006 Nalbandian reached three ATP Masters Series semifinals in Miami, Rome and Madrid.
Russian 13th seed Mikhail Youzhny advanced to the second round after Carlos Moya (left adductor) retired midway through the second set. Youzhny was leading 6-2, 3-1 at the time. Frenchman Gael Monfils (right hamstring) also retired after losing the first eight games to Czech Radek Stepanek.
Juan Carlos Ferrero, who won back-to-back titles in 2002 (d. Moya) and 2003 (d. Coria), advanced to the second round with a 7-5, 6-2 win over 2002 semifinalist, Briton Tim Henman. Ferrero has won 23 of 28 matches in Monte-Carlo during his career. In 2007 his clay court record is 10 wins from 14 matches. Henman has now lost in the first round of Monte-Carlo three consecutive years.
