Defending champion Rafael Nadal won his 37th consecutive match on clay with a convincing 6-4, 6-4 win over Arnaud Clement to advance to the second round of the Masters Series Monte-Carlo presented by Rolex.
Nadal, who registered a 75% first serve percentage, was broken twice but was relentless on his return. He broke four times in five break opportunities to clinch the win in 1 hour, 35 minutes.
With the victory, the 19-year-old Spaniard improves to 12-3 on the season. He also avenged his three-set loss to Clement in the Marseille semifinals in February. He will now face Jean Rene Lisnard - playing for Monaco - who surprised Andy Murray in a 4-6,7-6(5), 7-5 thriller. The Scottish teen gave up 23 break chances to Lisnard during the 3-hour, 7-minute match on the Court des Princes.
It marked Lisnard's first ATP-level victory this year. The 26-year-old, currently ranked No. 154 in the INDESIT ATP Rankings, reached the second round in his previous two Monte-Carlo appearances, topping Tomas Berdych in 2004 and Thomas Johansson in 2005.
Also on Tuesday, Frenchmen Sebastien Grosjean and Gilles Simon advanced to the second round with straight-set victories over Fernando Verdasco and qualifier Teimuraz Gabaschvilli, respectively.
Grosjean will now play qualifier Benjamin Balleret of Monaco - ranked No. 351 in the INDESIT ATP Rankings - who continued his surprise run when he upended Christophe Rochus in his Monte-Carlo opener. Wild card Simon will play Berdych. Simon, who improved to a 9-5 season mark with Tuesday's win, reached his first ATP final in Valencia last week.
In one of the longest matches of the day, Spaniard Feliciano Lopez defeated Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(2). Lopez had previosuly beaten Hanescu in Doha and is now 5-7 on the season and posted his first victory on clay since beating Andre Agassi in Hamburg's first round last year.
Fourth seed Ivan Ljubicic and eighth seed David Ferrer were also winners on Tuesday, while No. 12 seed Fernando Gonzalez ousted former champion Carlos Moya 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
