No. 1 Nadal, No. 2 Federer, No. 4 Murray win in Paris; Nalbandian also advances

Rafael Nadal (pictured) and Roger Federer kicked off their BNP Paribas Masters campaigns with convincing second round victories on Wednesday in Paris. Top-seeded Nadal cruised to a, 6-2, 6-4, victory over lucky loser Florent Serra, while No. 2 seed Federer defeated Sweden’s Robin Soderling, 6-4, 7-6(7).

In a match that last 74 minutes, both the top ranked Spaniard and the Frenchman served up five aces, but Nadal was more successful overall on the serve, winning 85 percent of his first serve points and dropping only six points on his second serve. The five-time grand slam singles champion broke serve on three of five opportunities, while Serra could not convert on his lone break point chance. The 22-year-old improves to 81-10 on the year, which includes titles at the French Open, Wimbledon and six other singles titles. Currently ranked No. 63 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, Serra falls to 20-24 on the season. Next up for the left-handed Spaniard is a third round encounter with No. 16 seed Gael Monfils of France.

In the evening session on Court Central in front a sold out crowd including his agent’s famous tennis wife Mary Jo Fernandez, Federer was able to get past Soderling due to his strong service performance. Federer smashed 10 aces and was able to win 90 percent of his first serve points. The 13-time grand slam champion, who broke serve once during the match, did not face any break points on his serve. Paris is the only Masters Series event that the Swiss star has not yet won. The singles winner last week at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in his hometown of Basel, Federer improves to 64-14 on the season. Also a title winner last week but at the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon in France, Soderling falls to 45-21 on the season and currently stands winless in eight matches played against Federer. Next up for Federer is hard hitting Croatian Marin Cilic, who defeated Marcel Granollers, 6-4, 7-6(2).

World No. 4 Andy Murray, who has been on fire lately, was also victorious as he defeated American Sam Querrey, 6-2, 6-4. A winner of the last two Masters Series events in Cincinnati and Madrid, Murray got broken to start the match and fell behind 0-2, but quickly recovered winning six straight games to win the opening set, 6-2. Throughout the 75-minute battle, Murray smashed eight aces, while breaking the 6’6” Californian natives serve five times.

“After the start I thought I played well, neutralized his biggest strength early on in the match and then obviously got ahead early in the second set,” said Murray. “A bit disappointed to lose my serve, but again, the way I responded was very good.”

Other noteworthy winners on Wednesday were defending champion and No. 8 David Nalbandian, No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, No. 10 Gilles Simon and No. 11 James Blake. In two hours and eight minutes, Nalbandian was able to get past German Nicolas Kiefer, 7-6(5), 6-3. Nalbandian hit six aces, which was two less than Kiefer, but was able to muster two service breaks compared to only one by the German. Next up for Nalbandian is a third round meeting with Davis Cup teammate Juan Martin Del Potro, who he defeated last week in Basel.

Davydenko, who has struggled recently but has already clinched a spot in the year-end Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai, got past Croatian qualifier Ivan Ljubicic, 7-6(5), 7-5, in one hour and 44 minutes. The Russian hammered 12 aces, served 87 percent on his first serve and was able to secure the lone service break of the match at 5-5 in the second set. Davydenko, who has less stress on him these days since he was found not guilty on tennis betting, next faces former Paris champion Tomas Berdych. Berdych upset No. 12 seed Stanislas Wawrinka, 6-3, 7-5, behind six aces and a perfect three for three on break point opportunities.

Simon, the a singles champion this year in Bucharest, Casablanca and Indianapolis, defeated Russian Igor Andreev, 6-3, 7-5, in 95 minutes. At the Masters Series Madrid event two weeks ago in which he finished as runner-up, Simon saved four match points in his opening round match against Andreev. Simon improves to 49-24 on the season and next will do battle against No. 7 Andy Roddick for a place in the quarterfinals.

American James Blake, who has struggled tremendously to find good results since taking time off after the US Open, found his form again as he came from behind to defeat Italian qualifier Simone Bolelli, 6-7(10), 6-3, 6-4, in two hours. Still having an outside shot at qualifying for the year-end championships in Shanghai, Blake next faces German Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round. This afternoon, Kohlschreiber ended David Ferrer’s Tennis Masters Cup hopes by defeating the Spaniard, 6-3, 6-2.