BARCELONA, Spain (AP)—Second-seeded Robin Soderling advanced to the third round of the Barcelona Open with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina on Tuesday.
The top-seeded player after the withdrawl of five-time champion Rafael Nadal, Soderling served five aces and broke Chela on four of five opportunities to win the match.
He was joined by Lleyton Hewitt, Jurgen Melzer and Feliciano Lopez in the round of 16.
Italian qualifier Simone Bolelli won his first-round match when ninth-seeded Tommy Robredo retired with a back injury in the third set. Tenth-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina also exited following a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 defeat to Spanish qualifier Daniel Gimeno-Traver.
Other first-round winners were Nicolas Almagro, Ivan Navarro, Jeremy Chardy, Denis Istomin, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Victor Hanescu, Alberto Martin and Ernests Gulbis.