Roger Federer needed only 46 minutes to defeat Alberto Martin 6-0, 6-1 and advance to the third round of the Masters Series Monte Carlo presented by Rolex. The Swiss was nearly perfect with his serve winning 90% of the points with his first serve and never facing a break point.
For Federer it was the first time 102 career clay matches that he only lost one game as he had previosuly lost two games in three ocassions. This was also his shortest match since posting a 37-minute win over Denis Golovanov in 2002 Moscow (Shortest match of his career).
He will now play Benjamin Balleret, who advanced when Sebastien Grosjean retired with a back pain early in the third set. Balleret entered the event through the qualifying, where he was given a Wild Card. At No. 351, Balleret is the lowest player to advance to a third round of an ATP Masters Series tournament this year.
In the last singles match on center court, No. 2 seed and defending champion Rafael Nadal defeated Jean-Rene Lisnard (playing for Monaco) 6-4, 6-1 and kept his clay court winning streak at 38. After a close first set, Nadal faced little resistance from Lisnard and broke serve four times to finish the match in 1 hour, 27 minutes. His last loss on clay was against Igor Andreev in Valencia last year.
No. 4 seed Ivan Ljubicic posted a grueling 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over Frenchman Florent Serra and will now face Gilles Simon, a 7-6(2), 6-7(5), 6-4 winner over Tomas Berdych. Ljubicic hit 16 aces and won 80% of the points with his first serve to claim the victory in 1 hour, 52 minutes. This is the first time the Croat wins two consecutive matches on clay since Rome last year (l. to Agassi in third round).
In another thrilling match, No. 8 seed David Ferrer defeated Dominik Hrbaty 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the third round for the second consecutive year. With the win, Ferrer improves to 12-9 and will look to reach his second consecutive Masters Series semifinal (l. to Federer in Miami). The Spaniard had to retire (back pain) against Thierry Ascione in the first round of Valencia last week but has quickly recovered by posting two third-set wins here.
In other matches, No. 7 seed Gaston Gaudio defeated countryman Jose Acasuso 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 while No. 10 seed Radek Stepanek was upset by Italian qualifier Alesso di Mauro 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(4).
