MONACO (AP) Fernando Verdasco of Spain, Jurgen Melzer of Austria and Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine advanced to the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Monday.
The 13th-seeded Verdasco rallied past Olivier Rochus of Belgium 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 and will next play Ivan Dodig of Croatia. The Spaniard dropped serve twice in the first set but didn't face another break point.
``I've got to the final here before, so it's one of my favorite tournaments,'' said Verdasco, who was crushed 6-0, 6-1 by seven-time champion Rafael Nadal of Spain in the final two years ago.
The 15th-seeded Melzer and Dolgopolov, seeded 16th, had much easier matches.
Dolgopolov defeated Juan Igancio Chela of Argentina 6-2, 6-2, setting up a match against Bernard Tomic of Australia.
The 19-year-old Tomic was happy with how he mixed sliced forehands with heavy groundstrokes in his 6-4, 6-3 win against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.
Regardless of any surface, he's pretty hard to play against,'' Tomic said.A lot of clay-court players play behind the line. But I think my tennis is something different. If I play my tennis, they struggle with my game - even on clay.''
Melzer downed Lukasz Kubot 6-2, 7-5 after breaking the Pole five times. He will play Julien Benneteau of France, who topped Spain's Marcel Granollers 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
Albert Montanes advanced with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 against big-serving Milos Raonic of Canada, who hit nine aces. The Spaniard next plays seventh-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia.
Paul-Henri Mathieu, trying to find his way back after a long-term knee injury, thrashed Donald Young 6-0, 6-1. The Frenchman saved four break points of his own and broke Young's serve six times.
I was happy the way I was moving, and I was keeping the ball in the court,'' Mathieu said.I don't have the knees of a 20-year-old anymore. But I'm able to play 100 percent without any problems. Things are improving.''
Mathieu next plays No. 12 Kei Nishikori of Japan or Spain's Albert Ramos, runner-up Sunday at the Grand Prix Hassan II tournament.
In other first-round matches, Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber and Finland's Jarkko Nieminen won in straight sets.
Kohlschreiber won 6-4, 6-4 against Guillaume Rufin of France. Nieminen beat Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-6 (3) to set up a match against Nadal on Wednesday.
Nadal, the six-time French Open champion, is chasing his first title since winning at Roland Garros last year.
I have lots of success on clay in the past, so I want to do well here,'' Nadal said.I haven't won a title (for 10 months), but how many finals have I played?''
Nadal has lost to Novak Djokovic in seven consecutive finals, and he could face the top-ranked Serb in the final. Djokovic is scheduled to play against Italy's Andreas Seppi or Romania's Victor Hanescu.