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Doubles wins for champions in Monte-Carlo
Rafa Nadal & Andy Murray cruise through the first round of doubles
After an action packed day on the clay yesterday we get ready for yet more aces, backhands and volleys as the second round gets underway at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.
As a warm up to the second round some of the big names in tennis took to the clay in the doubles tournament yesterday and once again showed their domination of the sport. Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco returned to their winning ways as the Spanish duo, who had to withdraw before their second-round match at the Miami Open, won 82 per cent of their service points to beat ATP World Tour veterans Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany and Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-4, 6-2.
Nadal and Verdasco, a wild card entry, will now go on to face No. 3 seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut. They enter Monte-Carlo on a 10-match winning streak.
Another notable singles player, Andy Murray, teamed up with Dominic Inglot to beat Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas and Spain's Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-4. The Brits broke their opponents three times to win in an hour and six minutes. Inglot and Murray will face the No. 7 seeds Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic.
With the first round of competition still going on we begin today with the first six matches of round two. First up will see Gilles Simon take on Grigor Dimitrov, Pierre-Hugues Herbet versus Andy Murray, Roger Federer against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Pablo Carrena Busta and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, and finally Jeremy Chardy takes on Roberto Baustista Agut.
For Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbet, this will be his first meeting with Brit Andy Murray. Each of the other pairings have met at least once before. Gilles Simon and Roger Federer have both previously dominated over their opponents so it looks like we will have an interesting day on Court Rainier III.
