Guillermo Coria, the No. 6 seed, began his pursuit for a fourth consecutive appearance in the Masters Series Monte-Carlo title match with a resounding 6-3, 6-1 victory over Mikhail Youzhny, the first of three Russians to fall in early action Tuesday.

The 2004 champion came into the first round match with a 3-0 clay court record against Youzhny and succeeded in maintaining the perfect mark. He converted on five of eight break chances during the 79-minute match and improved his event record to 21-4.

Coria will next face Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, who claimed his first win in Monte-Carlo in impressive style, upsetting former World No. 1 Marat Safin before the French crowd. The 24-year-old had exited in the first round of his previous two appearances, against Luis Horna in 2003 and against Coria in 2005, but put together an impressive start to his 2006 campaign.

He outdistanced himself from the Russian star in the first set, doubling up on points won to hold his opponent off the scoreboard. Safin, who turned in his best performance of the season last week with a semifinal run in Valencia, put together a better effort in the second, but Mathieu held on the close out the 6-0, 7-5 win.

Safin won their last encounter four years ago, on clay at the Davis Cup final, but Mathieu moved to a 2-1 lead in the career series following Tuesday's win. He also won their only other ATP encounter – at the 2002 Moscow event.

Swede Robin Soderling also recorded his first event victory in his third attempt, defeating another top Russian, fifth-seed Nikolay Davydenko. Davydenko suffered his second first-round upset in as many weeks, falling in his 2006 clay court debut in Valencia. In 2006, he had compiled a 25-10 clay court record, winning the St. Poelten title and reaching four semifinals on the surface.

On the first match on Center Court, Frenchman Fabrice Santoro failed to pull off a victory against No. 16 seed Tomas Berdych despite coming back from a 4-0 deficit in the second set. The 20-year-old Czech, the only player besides Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to capture an ATP Masters Series title in 2005, won his first ATP match on clay since Roland Garros last year.