Almagro, Nalbandian advance in Buenos Aires
Category: Tennis
Publish Date: 02-21-2012 11:00 AM -0500
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP)—Seeded players had an easy day Tuesday as almost all moved through to the second round of the clay-court Copa Claro.
No. 2 Nicolas Almagro of Spain advanced against Potito Starace of Italy 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), and No. 3 Gilles Simon of France defeated Rui Machado of Portugal 6-3, 7-5.
No. 5 Juan Monaco of Argentina moved on when Filippo Volandri of Italy retired in the second set with an injury. Monaco was leading 6-1, 3-1.
Seventh-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain also reached the next round, beating Eric Prodon of France 6-4, 6-1.
The biggest upset came when eighth-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina lost to Albert Ramos of Spain 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Home favorite David Nalbandian defeated Wayne Odesnik of the United States, 6-2, 6-3.
“Always playing at home is special,” Nalbandian said. “It was a little windy out there today and the ball was moving around a bit.”
In other matches, Benoit Paire of France defeated Javier Marti of Spain 2-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2, Igor Andreev of Russia won over Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia 6-2, 6-2 and Federico Delbonis of Argentina defeated Frederico Gil of Portugal, 6-2, 6-2.
